ORIENTAL   RELIGIONS. 


"Out  from  the  heart  of  Nature  rolled 
The  burdens  of  the  Bible  old  ; 
The  litanies  of  nations  came, 
Like  the  volcano's  tongue  of  flame, 
Up  from  the  burning  core  below, 
The  canticles  of  love  and  woe." 

R.  W.  Emerson. 


Oriental  Religions 


AND     THEIR 


RELATION    TO     UNIVERSAL 
RELIGION 


BY 


SAMUEL  '  JOHNSON 


INDIA 


BOSTON 

JAMES    R.    OSGOOD    AND    COMPANY 
1872 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S72,  by 

SAMUEL    JOHNSON, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Cambridge: 
press  of  john  wilson  and  son. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

INTRODUCTORY   1 


INDIA. 

I. 
RELIGION    AND     LIFE. 

I.  The  Primitive  Aryas 39 

II.  The  Hindu  Mind 57 

III.  The  Hymns 87 

IV.  Tradition 153 

V.  The  Laws 169 

VI.  Woman 203 

VII.  Social  Forms  and  Forces 237 


II. 
RELIGIOUS     PHILOSOPHY. 


I.  Vedanta 


305 


II.  Sankhya 375 

III.  The  Bhagavadgita 411 

IV.  Piety  and  Morality  of  Pantheism 441 

V.  Incarnation 483 

VI.  Transmigration 513 

VII.  Religious  Universality 555 


VI  CONTENTS. 

III. 

BUDDHISM. 

Page 

T.  Speculative  Principles 579 

II.  Nirvana 619 

III.  Ethics  and  Humanities 639 

IV.  The  Hour  and  the  Man 683 

V.  After-Life  in  India 711 

VI.  Buddhist  Civilization 735 

VII.    ECCLESIASTICISM 769 


INTRODUCTORY. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


r  I  ^HE  pages  now  offered  as  a  contribution  to  the 
A  Natural  History  of  Religion  are  the  TheStand- 
outgrowth  of  studies  pursued  with  constant  point- 
interest  for  more  than  twenty  years.  These  studies 
have  served  substantially  to  confirm  the  views  pre- 
sented in  a  series  of  Lectures,  delivered  about  that 
number  of  years  since,  on  the  Universality  of  Relig- 
ious Ideas,  as  illustrated  by  the  Ancient  Faiths  of 
the  East.  So  imperfect  were  the  sources  of  positive 
knowledge  then  accessible,  that  I  chose  to  defer  publi- 
cation ;  and  such  increase  of  light  has  been  constantly 
flowing  in  upon  this  great  field  of  research  ever  since, 
that  I  have  continued  to  defer  my  report  thereon,  in 
view  of  the  existing  state  of  scholarship,  until  the 
present  moment,  when  such  reasons  are  comparatively 
without  force.  Engaged  for  many  years  in  the  public 
presentation  of  themes  and  principles  of  the  nature 
here  illustrated,  I  cannot  but  note  that  a  trustworthy 
statement  of  what  the  non-Christian  world  has  to 
offer  to  the  eye  of  thoroughly  free  inquiry,  in  mat- 
ters of  belief,  is  more  and  more  earnestly  demanded  ; 
that  in  the  present  stage  of  religious  questions  it  is 
indispensable ;  and  that  the  sense  of  inadequacy  felt 
by  all  who  have  thoughtfully  approached  the  subject, 
in  a  degree  which  none  but  themselves  can  compre- 


2  INTRODUCTORY. 

hend,  should  no  longer  prevent  us  from  performing 
our  several  parts  in  this  work.  I  need  hardly  add 
that  the  response  to  this  demand  is  already  admirable 
on  the  part  of  liberal  thinkers  in  Europe  and  America. 
To  them  the  present  contribution  is  dedicated,  in  cor- 
dial appreciation  of  their  spirit  and  their  aim.  It  has 
been  a  labor  not  of  duty  only,  but  of  love.  I  have 
been  prompted  by  a  desire  of  combining  the  testimony 
rendered  by  man's  spiritual  faculties  in  different  epochs 
and  races,  concerning  questions  on  which  these  facul- 
ties are  of  necessity  his  court  of  final  appeal.  I  have 
written,  not  as  an  advocate  of  Christianity  or  of  any 
other  distinctive  religion,  but  as  attracted  on  the  one 
hand  by  the  identity  of  the  religious  sentiment  under 
all  its  great  historic  forms,  and  on  the  other  by  the 
movement  indicated  in  their  diversities  and  contrasts 
towards  a  higher  plane  of  unity,  on  which  their  ex- 
clusive claims  shall  disappear. 

It  is  only  from  this  standpoint  of  the  Universal  in 
Religion  that  they  can  be  treated  with  an  appreciation 
worthy  of  our  freedom,  science,  and  humanity.  The 
corner-stones  of  worship,  as  of  work,  are  no  longer  to 
be  laid  in  what  is  special,  local,  exclusive,  or  anoma- 
lous ;  but  in  that  which  is  essentially  human,  and 
therefore  unmistakably  divine.  The  revelation  of 
God,  in  other  words,  can  be  given  in  nothing  else 
than  the  natural  constitution  and  culture  of  man.  To 
be  thoroughly  convinced  of  this  will  of  itself  forbid 
our  imposing  religious  partialism  on  the  facts  pre- 
sented by  the  history  of  the  soul. 

Yet  it  should  perhaps  be  stated  that  the  following 
outline  of  what  I  mean  by  the  idea  of  Universal  Relig- 
ion, although  prefatory,  represents  no  purely  a  priori 
assumption,  but  the  results  to  which  my  studies  have 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

led  me,  as  well  as  the  spirit  in  which  they  have  been 
pursued. 

Man's  instinctive  sense  of  a  divine  origin,  interpreted 
as  historical  derivation,  explains  his  infantile  xhehistor- 
dreams  of  a  primitive  "golden  age."  In  this  ical  Pr°cess. 
crude  form  he  begins  to  recognize  his  inherent  rela- 
tion to  the  Infinite  and  Perfect.  But  while,  as  his 
happy  mythology,  these  dreams  have  an  enduring 
symbolic  value,  they  no  longer  stand  as  data  of  posi- 
tive history  or  permanent  religious  belief.  And  the 
same  fate  befalls  the  claims  of  special  religions  to  have 
been  opened  by  men  in  some  sense  perfect  from  their 
birth,  and  to  possess  revelations  complete  and  final  at 
their  announcement.  All  these  ideas  of  genesis  are 
transient,  because  they  contradict  the  natural  processes 
of  growth.  We  come  to  note,  as  they  depart,  a  pro- 
gressive education  of  man,  through  his  own  essential 
relations  with  the  Infinite,  commencing  at  the  lowest 
stage,  and  at  each  step  pointing  onward  to  fresh  ascen- 
sion ;  an  advance  not  less  sure,  upon  the  whole,  for 
the  fact  that  in  special  directions  an  earlier  may  often 
surpass  a  later  attainment,  proving  competent,  so  far, 
to  instruct  it.1 

And  this  progress  is  as  natural  as  it  is  divine.  It 
proceeds  by  laws  inherent  and  immanent  in  humanity  ; 
laws  whose  absoluteness  affirms  Infinite  Mind  as  impli- 
cated in  this  finite  advance  up  to  mind,  and  then  by 
means  of  mind;  laws  whose  continuous  onward  move- 
ment is  inspiration. 

If  this  be  true,  the  distinction  hitherto  made  between 

1  I  insist  on  the  indispensableness  of  the  infinite  element  to  every  step  of  evolution, 
because  I  find  this  nowise  explicable  as  creation  of  the  higher  by  the  lower.  The  very 
idea  of  growth  involves  more  than  mere  historical  derivation.  Genesis  is  a  constant  mys- 
tery of  origination.  And  an  ascending  series  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  what  is  greater, 
not  less,  than  its  highest  term. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

"sacred"  and  "profane"  history,  interpret  it  as  we 
will,  vanishes  utterly  and  for  ever.  "Profane  his- 
tory "  is  a  misnomer.  The  line  popularly  drawn 
between  Heathenism  and  Christianity  as  stages  respec- 
tively of  blindness  and  insight,  of  guess-work  and 
authority,  of  "  nature  "  and  "  grace,"  is  equally  unjust 
in  both  directions,  because  unjust  to  man  himself.  In 
all  religions  there  are  imperfections;  in  all,  the  claim 
to  infallible  or  exclusive  revelation  is  alike  untenable  ; 
yet,  in  all,  experience  must  somehow  have  reached 
down  to  authority  and  up  to  certitude.  In  all,  the 
intuitive  faculty  must  have  pressed  beyond  experience 
into  the  realm  of  impalpable,  indemonstrable,  inde- 
finable realities.  In  all,  millions  of  souls,  beset  by 
the  same  problems  of  life  and  death,  must  have  seen 
man's  positive  relations  with  the  order  of  the  universe 
face  to  face.  In  all,  the  one  spiritual  nature,  that 
makes  possible  the  intercourse  of  ideas  and  times 
and  tribes,  must  have  found  utterance  in  some  eter- 
nally valid  form  of  thought  and  conduct. 

The  difference  between  ancient  and  modern  civiliza- 
Andentand  tion   is    not  to  be  explained  by  referring  to 

'rn,      Christianity,  whether  as  a  new  religious  ideal 

types  of  J  7  o 

civilization,  or  life  grafted  into  the  process  of  history,  or  as 
the  natural  consummation  of  this  process.  The  Chris- 
tian ideal  is  but  a  single  force  among  others,  all  equally 
in  the  line  of  movement.  Civilization  is  now  definitely 
traceable  to  a  great  variety  of  influences,  among 
which  that  of  Race  is  probably  the  most  prominent ; 
its  present  breadth  and  fulness  being  the  result  of  a 
fusion  of  the  more  energetic  and  expansive  races  ;  while 
the  freedom  and  science,  which  are  its  motive  power, 
have  found  in  the  manifold  ideals  of  the  Christian 
Church  on  the  whole  quite  as  much  hindrance  as  help. 


INTRODUCTORY.  5 

But,  apart  from  the  causes  of  difference  between 
ancient  and  modern  conceptions  of  life,  the  fact  itself 
may  be  described  as  simply  the  natural  difference  be- 
tween the  child  and  the  man.  This  transition  is  not 
marked  in  either  case  by  sudden  changes  in  the  nature 
of  growth,  nor  by  the  engrafting  of  new  faculties,  nor 
by  special  interferences  of  the  kind  called  "  supernat- 
ural," whatever  that  may  mean,  but  is  gradual  and 
normal.  Reflection  supplants  instinct,  and,  with  the 
self-consciousness  which  brings  higher  powers  and 
bolder  claims,  enters  the  criminality  of  which  the  child 
was  less  capable.  In  the  child  there  was  more  than 
childishness  ;  for  his  whole  manhood  was  there  in  germ. 
The  leaf  needs  no  special  miracle  to  become  a  flower ; 
nor  does  the  child,  to  become  a  man.  The  whole 
-process  of  growth  is  the  miracle,  —  product  of  a  divine 
force  that  transcends  while  pervading  it. 

The  history  of  Religion  follows  the  same  law.  There 
is  no  point  where  Deity  enters  ;   for  there  is  no  „    .    . 

x  _  J  Continuity 

point  where  Deity  is  absent.  There  is  no  need  of  thenatu- 
of  divine  interference,  where  the  very  law  by  ral  process 
which  all  proceeds  is  itself  divine.  It  is  as  tenderly 
faithful  to  minutest  needs  at  the  beginning  as  at  any 
later  stage  of  growth.  Whatever  forms  may  arise, 
they  require  neither  fresh  legitimation  nor  explanation, 
since  their  germs  lay  in  the  earlier  forms,  their  finest 
fruit  encloses  the  primal  seeds,  and  history,  when 
read  backward,  is  discerned  to  have  been  natural 
prophecy. 

Thus  there  are  differences  of  higher  and  lower  in 
the  forms  of  revelation  ;  but  there  is  no  such  thing  as ' 
a  revealed  religion  in  distinction  from  natural  religion. 
So,  too,  spiritual  and  physical  differ  ;  but  natural  can 
be  opposed  to  spiritual  only  in  a  very  restricted  and 


6  INTRODUCTORY. 

questionable  sense.  Any  distinction  thus  indicated 
must  lie  within  the  limits  of  each  and  every  religion 
taken  by  itself.  It  cannot  mark  off  one  positive  relig- 
ion from  another,  still  less  one  from  the  rest;  since, 
whatever  meanings  be  given  to  these  terms,  every 
such  religion  will  be  found  to  have  its  own  spiritual 
and  natural  sides,  if  any  one  has  them. 

Christianity  is  nevertheless  constantly  opposed,  as 
False  pre-     a  "  spiritual "  religion,  to  the  earlier  faiths,  as 

tensions  set  i  ,7  •  r     ,  1 

f0r  Chris-  merely  natural  ones ;  as  n  there  were  some 
tianity.  essential  contradiction  to  truth  and  good  in 
our  human  nature,  which  was  abolished  by  the  advent 
of  Jesus.  The  history  of  religion,  so  far  from  teach- 
ing such  a  schism  between  the  human  and  the  divine, 
—  or  this  bridging  over  at  a  certain  epoch  of  a  gulf 
which,  by  its  very  definition,  was  impassable,  —  de- 
monstrates the  exact  contrary,  —  a  substantial  unity 
of  God  and  Man  beneath  all  outward  alienations.  It 
points  to  perfection  in  the  laws  of  human  nature,  under 
all  the  varying  phases  of  human  character ;  to  con- 
stitutional health  unshaken  by  the  diseases  incident  to 
growth ;  to  moral  and  spiritual  recuperation,  as  human 
as  the  vices  that  required  it;  to  divine  immanence, 
under  finite  conditions,  from  the  beginning  onwards. 

Universal  Religion,  then,  cannot  be  any  one,  ex- 
where  is  the  c?us*vefyi  of  the  great  positive  religions  of 
Universal  the  world.  Yet  it  is  really  what  is  best  in 
each  and  every  one  of  them ;  purified  from 
baser  inter-mixture  and  developed  in  freedom  and 
power.  Being  the  purport  of  nature,  it  has  been  ger- 
minating in  every  vital  energy  of  man ;  so  that  its 
elements  exist,  at  some  stage  of  evolution,  in  every 
great  religion  of  mankind. 

If  any  belief  fails  to  abide  this  test,  the  worse  for  its 


INTRODUCTORY. 


claims  on  our  religious  nature.  "  If  that  were  true 
which  is  commonly  taken  for  .granted,"  wrote  Cud- 
worth,1  "that  the  generality  of  the  Pagan  nations 
acknowledged  no  sovereign  numen,  but  scattered  their 
devotions  amongst  a  multitude  of  independent  deities, 
this  would  much  have  stumbled  the  naturality  of  the 
divine  idea ; "  an  effect  equivalent,  in  his  large  and 
clear  mind,  to  disproval  of  the  divineness  itself. 

As  distinctive  Christianity  was  in  fact  but  a  single 
step  in  a  for  ever  unfolding  process,  so  those  Rightsofthe 
earlier  beliefs  are  disparaged  when  they  are  older  Faiths- 
made  to  point  to  it  as  their  final  cause.  They  stand,  as 
it  has  stood,  in  their  own  right ;  justified,  as  it  has  been, 
by  meeting,  each  in  its  own  day  and  on  its  own  soil, 
the  demands  of  human  nature.  They  point  forward, 
but  not  to  a  single  and  final  revelation  entering  history 
from  without  their  line,  and  reversing  at  once  their 
whole  process  in  its  new  dealing  with  their  attained 
results.  They  point  forward  ;  but  it  is  with  the  proph- 
ecy of  an  endless  progress,  which  no  distinctive  name, 
symbol,  authority,  or  even  ideal,  can  foreclose.  They 
are  misrepresented,  when  they  are  held  to  be  mere 
"  forerunners  "  or  "  types  "  in  the  interest  of  a  later 
faith,  which  has  in  fact  entered  into  the  fruit  of  their 
labors,  and  in  due  season  transmits  its  own  best  to 
the  fresh  forces  that  are  opening  up  a  larger  unity, 
and  already  demanding  a  new  name  and  a  broader 
communion.  They  are  misrepresented,  when,  to  con- 
trast them  with  what  is  simply  a  successor,  they  are 
called  "  preparations  for  the  truth  of  God."  The  exi- 
gencies of  Christian  dogma  have  required  that  they 
should  even  be  described  as  mere  "  fallacies  of  human 
reason,"  tending  inevitably  to  despair ;  a  charge   re- 

1  Preface  to  I?itellectual  System  of  the  Universe. 


8  INTRODUCTORY. 

futed  alike  by  the  laws  of  science  and  the  facts  of 
history,  since  man  never  did,  and  never  can,  despair. 
Prejudices  of  this  nature,  inherent,  it  would  seem,  in 
the  make-up  of  a  distinctive  religion,  which  forbid  its 
disciples  to  render  justice  to  other  forms  of  faith,  are 
rapidly  yielding  to  the  larger  scope  and  freer  method 
of  inquiry  peculiar  to  our  times. 

Every  historical  religion  embodies  the  sacred  person- 
Misrepre-  ality  of  man  ;  announcing  his  infinite  relations 
them!10"0  to  life,  duty,  destiny.  Yet  it  has  been  an  al- 
most invariable  instinct  of  the  Christian  world  to  ignore 
this  presence  of  the  soul  in  her  own  phases  of  belief, 
and  to  hold  "  heathenism  "  to  be  her  natural  foe.  How- 
ever non-Christian  morality  and  sentiment  may  have 
harmonized  with  what  is  best  in  the  New  Testament, 
it  has  seldom  been  accorded  the  name  of  revelation. 
Although  there  is  always  a  comparatively  intelligent 
orthodoxy,  which  assents  to  the  idea  of  a  divine  im- 
manence in  all  ages,  yet  the  divinity  thus  recognized 
being,  after  all,  '"the  Christ? —  and  moreover  the  Christ 
of  especial  tradition,  —  and,  further  still,  this  Christ  in 
a  merely  preliminary  and  provisional  form,  —  there  can 
be  but  little  freedom  in  such  appreciation  of  the  faith 
or  virtue  extant  in  non-Christian  ages.  A  mode  of  pre- 
senting these,  not  unlike  that  of  the  early  apologists  of 
the  Church,  is  common  even  with  writers  of  the  so- 
called  liberal  sects ;  while,  with  the  more  exclusive 
ones,  to  praise  the  heathen  being  regarded  as  despoil- 
ing Christianity,  it  is  an  easy  step  to  the  inference  that 
Christianity  is  exalted  by  referring  heathenism  to  the 
category  of  delusions  and  snares.  And  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say,  upon  the  whole,  that  the  most  affirmative 
treatment  of  the  older  religions  would  hardly  suffice  to 
adjust  the  balance  fairly,  and  to  place  them  on  their 


INTRODUCTORY.  9 

real  merits  before  the  conscience  of  a  civilization  which 
has,  until  very  recently,  expended  almost  all  its  hospi- 
tality on  the  claims  of  Christianity  alone.1 

Many  of  those  who  write  in  the  interest  of  denomi- 
national efforts  have  trained  themselves  to  shrink  from 
no  assumptions  in  the  line  of  their  purpose  ;  while  others 
are  blinded  by  its  logic  to  the  most  patent  facts  of  his- 
tory. It  has  been  common  to  deny  boldly  that  moral 
and  religious  truth  had  any  positive  existence  for  the 
human  mind  before  the  Christian  epoch ;  to  assume 
that  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  actually  introduced  into 
human  nature  that  very  love  and  trust  to  whose  pre- 
existing power  in  the  hearts  of  its  hearers  it  could 
itself  have  been  but  an  appeal.  As  if  ideal  principles 
could  have  been  imported  into  man  by  a  special 
teacher,  or  be  traced  back  to  some  moment  of  arrival, 
like  commercial  samples  or  inventions  in  machinery  ! 
So  powerful  is  a  traditional  religious  belief  to  efface  the 
perception  that  every  moral  truth  man  can  apprehend 
must  be  the  outgrowth  of  his  own  nature,  and  has  al- 

1  We  may  mention,  as  in  striking  contrast  to  this  general  record  of  Christendom,  such 
works  as  Dupuis'  Origines  de  Tons  les  Cultes,  Constant's  De  la  Religion,  Creuzer's 
Symbolik,  Duncker's  Geschichte  des  A  Iterthums,  Cousin's  Lectures  and  Fragments  on 
the  History  of  Philosophy,  Denis'  Theories  et  I  dies  Morales  dans  l 'A  ntiquite ,  Quinet's 
Genie  des  Religions,  Michelet's  Bible  de  I'Humanite,  Menard's  Morale  avant  les 
Philosophes,  Mrs.  Child's  Progress  of  Religions  Ideas,  and  R.  W.  Mackay's  Prog- 
ress of  the  Intellect.  To  these,  in  the  special  field  of  Oriental  Literature,  we  must 
add  the  Shemitic  studies  of  Renan  and  Michel  Nicolas;  and  those  of  Abel  Remu- 
sat,  Ruckert,  Lassen,  Roth,  and  Miiller,  on  the  remoter  Eastern  races.  All  of  these 
are  distinguished  from  the  mass  of  writers  on  this  theme  by  a  spirit  of  universality, 
which  proves  how  far  the  scholarship  of  this  age  has  advanced  beyond  the  theological 
narrowness  of  Bossuet,  the  critical  superficiality  of  Voltaire,  and  the  hard  negation  of 
the  so-called  rationalistic  schools  of  Lobeck  and  Voss.  But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  these 
scholars  are  still  reputed  heretical,  and  stand  in  disfavor  with  distinctive  Christianity  in 
exact  proportion  to  their  historical  impartiality.  Of  unequalled  significance  are  Lessing's 
Treatise  on  the  Education  of  the  Human  Race,  and  Herder's  Ideas  of  a  Philosophy 
of  Man  ;  works  of  marvellous  breadth,  freedom,  and  insight,  to  which,  more  than  to  any 
other  historical  and  literary  influences,  we  must  assign  the  parentage  of  modern  thought 
in  this  direction.  Heine  finely  says  of  Herder,  that,  "instead  of  inquisitorially  judging 
nations  according  to  the  degree  of  their  faith,  he  regarded  humanity  as  a  harp  in  the  hands 
of  a  great  master,  and  each  people  a  special  string,  helping  to  the  harmony  of  the  whole." 


IO  INTRODUCTORY. 

ways  been  seeking  to  reach  expression,  with  greater 
or  less  success. 

Until  very  recently  it  was  the  most  confident  com- 
monplace of  New  England  preaching  that  all  positive 
belief  in  immortality  came  into  the  world  with  Jesus. 
And  it  is  still  repeated,  as  a  fact  beyond  all  question, 
that  no  other  religion  besides  Christianity  ever  taught 
men  to  bear  each  other's  burdens,  or  preached  a  gospel 
to  the  poor. 

Nor  has  there  been  wanting  a  somewhat  discredit- 
able form  of  special  pleading,  for  the  purpose  of 
reducing  the  claims  of  heathenism  to  the  smallest  pos- 
sible amount;  a  grudging  literalism,  a  strict  construc- 
tion, or  a  base  rendering,  of  ancient  beliefs ;  which 
would  prove  every  apparent  spiritual  perception  a 
phantom  of  fancy  or  blind  hope,  or  else  a  mirage 
reflected  from  the  idealism  of  the  present  on  the  back- 
ground of  the  past.  Resolving  the  fair  imaginations 
and  delicate  divinations  of  the  childlike  races  into 
mockery  betrays,  however,  far  more  scepticism  in 
the  critic  than  in  the  race  he  wrongs.  The  same 
disposition  has  often  arisen  from  philosophical  prej- 
udice. Thus  the  desire  of  Locke  to  disprove  the 
notion  of  innate  ideas  led  him  to  a  degree  of  unbelief 
in  this  direction,  which  has  had  noticeable  effect  on 
subsequent  thought. 

But  we  have  yet  to  mention  one  of  the  worst  effects 
of  traditional  religion  on  the  treatment  of  history.  It 
is  still  held  consistent  with  Christian  scholarship  to 
deny  moral  earnestness  and  practical  conviction  to  the 
noblest  thinkers  of  antiquity,  in  what  they  have  af- 
firmed of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood 
of  man.  They  were  "  theorists,  not  believers  ;  "  "  talked 
finely  about  virtues,  but  failed  to  apply  them  ;  "  "gave 


INTRODUCTORY.  II 

no  such  meanings  to  their  great  words  as  we  give  to 
them;"  were  "aristocrats  in  thought,  whispering  one 
doctrine  to  their  disciples,  and  preaching  another  to 
the  people  ; "  and  so  on.  All  of  which  is  not  only  ex- 
aggerated or  false  in  details,  but  in  its  principle  and 
method  utterly  destructive  of  historical  knowledge. 
Substantially,  too,  it  amounts  to  rejecting  all  founda- 
tion for  morality  in  the  nature  of  man,  and  the  constant 
laws  of  life.  Critics  of  this  temper  have  not  now  the 
doctrinal  excuse  of  Calvin,  who  ascribed  the  apparent 
virtues  of  the  heathen  to  hypocrisy  ;  and  Dugald  Stewart 
was  hardly  more  wanting  than  they  must  be  in  the  true 
spirit  of  scholarship,  when  he  met  the  first  modern 
revelations  of  Oriental  wisdom  with  the  charge  that 
the  Sanskrit  language  was  a  mere  recent  invention  of 
the  Brahmans,  and  Sanskrit  literature  an  imposture. 

The  large  historical  relations  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  have  permitted  its  scholars  to  gather  up  the 
spiritual  wisdom  of  the  heathen,  though  in  the  interest 
of  its  own  authority.1  But  even  this  appreciation,  such 
as  it  was,  the  Reformation  included  in  its  sweeping 
malediction  upon  a  "  Church  of  mere  human  tradi- 
tions." And  Protestantism,  with  few  exceptions,  has 
continued  to  show,  in  its  treatment  of  non-Christian 
piety  and  morality,  the  narrow  sympathies  incident  to 
a  self-centred  and  exclusive  movement  of  reaction,  and 
to  an  attitude  inherently  sectarian. 

When  other  grounds  of  depreciation  failed,  there 
remained  the  presumption  that  all  such  outlying  truth 
must  have  been  carried  over  into  Pagan  records  by 
Christian  or  Hebrew  hands.  In  its  origin,  doubtless, 
this  idea  was  the  natural  outgrowth  of  Christian  en- 
thusiasm, and  the  sign  of  a  geniality  and  breadth  in  the 

1  See  especially  Lamennais,  Essai  sur  F Indifference  en  Matiire  de  Religion. 


12  INTRODUCTORY. 

religious  consciousness  which  was  reaching  out  every- 
where to  find  its  own.  But  there  was  also  a  dogmatic 
interest  in  the  development  of  these  claims ;  and  this 
foreclosed  the  paths  of  fair  inquiry.  Just  as  the  Alexan- 
drian Jews  referred  Greek  philosophy  to  Moses  (some  of 
them  even  resorted  to  pious  frauds  to  prove  it) ,  so  un- 
der the  exigency  of  their  creeds  of  depravity  and  natural 
incapacity,  of  atonement,  incarnation,  and  mediation, 
Christians  have  been  impelled  to  trace  all  ancient 
piety  to  their  own  records ;  to  imagine  late  interpola- 
tions or  communications  with  Jewish  doctors  or  Chris- 
tian apostles,  in  explanation  of  what  are  really  but 
natural  correspondences  of  the  religious  sentiment  in 
different  races.  And  when  for  such  imputed  influence 
there  could  not  be  found  even  the  shadow  of  a  historical 
proof,  well-reputed  writers  in  all  times  have  not  been 
wanting,  who  dared  to  affirm  it  without  hesitation  upon 
purely  a  priori  grounds.1 

A  common  method  of  dealing  with  the  relative  claims 
of  positive  religions  is  illustrated  in  a  recent  writer,2 
whose  extensive  reading  is  almost  nullified  for  the 
purposes  of  comparative  theology  and  ethics  by  the 
absolutism  of  his  authoritative  creed.  He  begins  with 
affirming  that  "Christianity  will  tolerate  no  rival;  that 
they  who  wish  to  raise  a  tabernacle  for  some  other 
master  must  be  warned  that  Christ,  and  Christ  alone, 


1  Thus  Hyde  (a.d.  1700)  supposes  that  the  Persians  must  have  been  converted  from 
idolatry  by  Abraham,  and  that  their  fire-altars  have  been  imitations  of  that  of  Jerusalem  ; 
and  a  writer  in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra  (1859)  attributes  the  Avesta  to  the  prophet  Daniel, 
and  declares  that  the  Persians  must  have  borrowed  their  notion  of  a  Messiah  from  the 
"  revealed  religion  of  the  Hebrews."  Another  instance  of  the  same  kind  is  the  attempt, 
not  very  scrupulously  conducted,  to  derive  the  moral  philosophy  and  spiritual  faith  of 
Seneca  from  St.  Paul,  so  thoroughly  defeated  by  Hilgenfeld  {Zeitschr.  d.  IViss-  Theol. 
1858). 

*  Hardwick,  Christ  and  other  Masters,  i.  pp.  39,  43.  Examples  of  the  extreme  inca- 
pacity of  this  learned  writer  to  render  justice  to  pre-Christian  beliefs  may  be  found  on 
pages  333  and  336  of  the  first  volume. 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

is  to  be  worshipped ; "  and  proceeds  to  state  the  limits 
of  his  recognition  of  character  in  the  theory  that  "  the 
most  effectual  way  of  defending  Christianity  is  not  to 
condemn  all  the  virtues  of  distinguished  heathens,  but 
rather  to  make  them  testify  in  its  favor,"  —  not  at  all, 
be  it  observed,  in  their  own.  All  of  which  reminds 
us  of  St.  Augustine's  saying,  that  whatever  of  truth  the 
Gentiles  taught  should  be  "  claimed  by  Christians  from 
its  heathen  promulgators,  as  unlawful  possessors  of  it, 
just  as  the  Hebrews  spoiled  the  Egyptians  ;"  a  process 
of  historical  justice  still  extensively  practised  by  the 
Church. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  appreciative  Orientalists 
should  be  moved  to  enter  their  protest  with  some 
warmth  against  audacities  like  those  here  mentioned. 
"  The  reaction  from  extravagant  theories  goes  too  far," 
exclaims  Max  Muller,  "  if  every  thought  which  touches 
on  the  problems  of  philosophy  is  to  be  marked  indis- 
criminately as  a  modern  forgery ;  if  every  conception 
which  reminds  us  of  Moses,  Plato,  or  the  Apostles,  is 
to  be  put  down  as  necessarily  borrowed  from  Jewish, 
Greek,  or  Christian  sources,  and  foisted  thence  into  the 
ancient  poetry  of  the  Hindus."  Friedrich  von  Schle- 
gel  at  the  outset  of  Oriental  studies,  as  well  as  Muller 
at  a  later  stage,  found  it  necessary  to  reprove  this  dis- 
position among  Christian  scholars.  Yet  he  himself 
does  not  hesitate  to  use  Oriental  errors  to  point  an 
appeal  to  Christianity  as  "  affording  the  only  clew  to 
principles  too  lofty  to  have  been  elicited  by  human 
reason." * 

It  is  time  the  older  religions  were  studied  in  the 
light  of  their  own  intrinsic  values.  They  are  at  Their  inde- 
once  spontaneities  of  desire  and  faith,  and  ele-  Pji"dent  val" 

1  Indian  Literature,  B.  in.  ch.  iv. 


14  INTRODUCTORY. 

ments  in  an  indivisible  unity  of  growth,  which  in- 
cludes at  each  stage  natural  guarantees  of  all  that 
has  since  been  or  shall  yet  be  attained.  We  should 
go  back  to  them  now,  in  the  maturity  of  science,  with 
something  of  the  tenderness  we  feel  for  our  own 
earliest  intuitions  and  emotions ;  with  a  reverent  use, 
too,  of  those  faculties  of  imagination  and  contempla- 
tion which  are  our  real  way  of  access  to  essential  rela- 
tions and  eternal  truths.  For  the  race  as  for  the 
individual,  — 

"  The  child 's  the  father  of  the  man  ; 
And  we  could  wish  our  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 

The  first  universal  principle  of  religion  is  that  all 
ideal eie-  great  beliefs  have  their  ideal  elements;  just  as 
ments.  jn  j-}ie  natural  world  the  bud  is  not  a  bud 
merely,  but  the  guarantee  of  a  flower.  And  it  is  these 
with  which  we  are  mainly  concerned,  as  pointing  to 
fulfilments  beyond  themselves,  in  a  future  that  will 
not  be  mortgaged  to  any  names,  nor  to  any  claims. 
They  are  that  promise  in  the  first  belief,  which  the  last 
cannot  fulfil  alone  ;  the  dream  which  only  their  mutual 
recognition  can  interpret.  And  it  becomes  us  to  find 
in  our  own  experience  the  secret  which  explains  how 
they  have  met  the  problems  of  ages  and  answered  the 
prayers  of  generations. 

Illustrations  of  these  ideal  elements,  high-water 
marks  of  ancient  faith,  readily  suggest  themselves. 

The  religious  toleration  prevailing  in  China  from 
very  early  times  is  not  fairly  estimated  when  it  is 
shown  to  have  lacked  that  deep  moral  earnestness  and 
spiritual  dignity  which  distinguish  the  highest  forms 
of  modern   religious   liberty  in  Europe  or  America. 


INTRODUCTORY.  15 

The  question  for  our  religious  philosophy  is,  whether 
it  is  not  of  essentially  the  same  nature  ;  a  germ  out  of 
which  that  highest  freedom  might  come  by  pure  force 
of  the  familiar  laws  of  social  and  scientific  growth,  by 
the  intercourse  of  races  and  the  intimacies  of  diverse 
beliefs ;  whether  it  has  not,  even  on  its  own  ground, 
reached  a  point  of  development,  in  certain  instances  or 
certain  respects,  which  makes  these  our  greater  out- 
ward opportunities  look  less  than  we  thought  them ; 
and  whether  it  may  not  hold  elements  of  moral  value 
whereof  our  culture  needs  the  infusion.  Similarly 
with  the  self-abnegation  of  the  Buddhist.  It  is  not  that 
perfect  devotion  of  the  human  powers  to  social  good 
which  would  involve  the  best  culture  and  the  largest 
practical  efficiency.  Neither  is  this,  we  may  add,  the 
quality  and  extent  of  the  same  virtue,  even  as  illus- 
trated and  taught  in  the  Christian  records.  But  to 
suppose  that  there  would  be  need  either  of  miraculous 
re-enforcement  or  essential  change,  to  unfold  Buddhis- 
tic self-denial  into  the  best  morality  and  piety  known  to 
our  time,  would  be  to  ignore  the  fact  that  it  has  shown 
itself  fully  equal  to  these  in  the  spirit  of  practical 
benevolence,  and  in  ardent  zeal  for  an  ideal  standard 
of  purity  and  truth.  In  the  same  way,  an  implicit  germ 
of  Monotheism,  even  in  the  "  element-worship  "  of  the 
early  Aryans,  fully  guarantees  progress  into  the  pure 
and  definite  Theism  of  the  best  Indo-European  minds  ; 
and  shows  the  assumption  of  a  divine  deposit  of  this 
central  truth  with  the  Shemitic  Hebrews  alone,  for  dis- 
tribution to  the  rest  of  mankind,  to  be  entirely  ground- 
less and  gratuitous.  Thus  the  cardinal  virtues  and 
beliefs  belong  not  to  one  religion,  but  to  all  religions ; 
and  the  diversities  of  form  into  which  each  of  these 
ideals  is  broken  by  differences  of  race  and  culture  do 


l6  INTRODUCTORY. 

not  affect  its  essential  identity  in  them  all.  We  every- 
where find  ourselves  at  home  in  the  world's  great  faiths, 
through  their  common  appeal  to  what  is  nearest  and 
most  familiar  to  us  in  solving  the  great  central  facts 
and  relations  with  which  the  soul  is  for  ever  called  to 
deal.  Everywhere  we  greet  essential  meanings  of  the 
unity  of  God  with  man,  of  fate  and  freedom,  of  sacri- 
fice, inspiration,  progress,  immortality,  practical  du- 
ties and  humanities,  just  as  we  everywhere  find  the 
mysteries  of  birth  and  death,  the  bliss  of  loving  and 
sharing,  the  self-respect  of  moral  loyalty,  the  stress 
of  ideal  desire. 

It  will  be  found,  in  following  the  course  of  these 
studies,  that  all  those  forms  of  moral  and  spiritual  per- 
ception which  are  wont  to  be  regarded  as  peculiar  gifts 
of  Christianity  are  visible  through  the  crude  social 
conditions  of  the  old  Asiatic  communities ;  in  such 
brave  struggle,  too,  for  growth  as  demonstrates  not  only 
their  vitality  under  those  conditions,  but  also  the  fact 
that  they  fulfil  functions  inherent  and  constant  in  the 
nature  of  man.  Such  are  the  recognition  of  ultimate 
good  through  transient  evil ;  of  spiritual  gain  through 
suffering  and  hindrance  ;  of  freedom  through  accept- 
ance of  divinely  natural  conditions ;  of  love,  beyond  a 
thought  of  constraining  law ;  of  the  rightful  authority 
of  the  soul  over  the  senses ;  of  the  sacredness  of  con- 
science, and  of  somewhat  immutable  in  its  decrees ; 
of  the  inevitableness  of  moral  penalty,  and  the  beauty 
of  disinterested  motive  ;  of  invincible  remedial  energies 
in  the  spiritual  universe ;  of  Divine  Fatherhood  and 
Human  Brotherhood,  and  Immortal  Life. 

Our  advantage  over  older  civilizations  will  thus  be 
wherein     seen  to  consist  not,  as  is  generally  imagined, 

lies  our  ad-     .  c  .      -  .  .  . 

vantage.      in  some  new  torce,  infused    miraculously,  or 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

otherwise,  by  the  Christian  religion ;  but  in  some- 
thing of  a  quite  different  nature.  It  is  found,  in  fact, 
in  the  immense  special  development  of  the  under- 
standing ;  of  the  faculties  of  observation  and  the  forces 
of  analysis ;  in  the  advancement  of  science,  and  the 
fusion  and  friction  of  races  ;  and,  finally,  in  the  wealth 
of  practical  material  opened  to  all.  So  impressive  is 
this  growth  of  the  understanding,  and  the  sciences 
thereon  dependent,  that  writers  like  Buckle  go  to  the 
extent  of  inferring  that  morality  and  religion,  on  the 
other  hand,  as  being  the  comparatively  "unchanging 
factors"  in  history,  have  had  "no  influence  on  prog- 
ress." But  this  is  to  reduce  history  to  a  sum  in 
arithmetic.  History  is  a  living  process.  Its  factors 
are  dynamic,  and  are  not  to  be  pulled  apart  like  dead 
bones  or  a  heap  of  sticks.  These  ethical  forces  are 
w  unchanging,"  only  in  the  sense  of  being  constant  and 
unfailing;  and  the  mental  growth,  which  clears  their 
vision  and  develops  their  practical  capacities,  in  fact 
enables  them  to  exert  an  ever-increasing  influence,  a 
completer  fulfilment  of  their  own  ideal. 

And  so,  in  holding  the  vantage  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion to  lie  specially  in  the  sphere  of  the  understanding, 
I  do  not  overlook  the  force  with  which  the  manifold 
ideals  of  Christian  belief  have  wrought,  like  other  and 
older  ones,  at  its  vast  looms  of  productive  power.  But 
I  note  also  how  perfectly  these  variations  in  the  relig- 
ious ideal  of  Christianity  correspond  with  and  depend  on 
the  steps  of  intellectual  progress  ;  how  analogous  they 
are  to  tho§e  of  other  religions  ;  and  finally,  a  point  of 
no  light  import,  how  little  what  is  broadest  and  best  in 
our  civilization  has  to  do  with  what  is  distinctive  in 
Christian  faith,  —  namely,  its  exclusive  concentration  on 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the  Christ.    It  is,  moreover,  pre- 

2 


l8  INTRODUCTORY. 

cisely  in  its  moral  and  religious  aspects  that  the  Chris- 
tendom of  eighteen  centuries  can  claim  least  practical 
superiority  to  the  older  civilizations. 

I  have  sought  to  bring  into  view  a  law  of  progress, 
Spiritual  in  which  the  most  important  transitions  in 
Reaction,  religious  history  find  their  true  explanation. 
I  refer  to  Spiritual  Reaction.  It  is  mainly  from 
habitual  disregard  of  this  familiar  law  in  its  broader 
aspects  that  such  transitions  have  been  referred  to 
special  divine  interference  with  the  natural  processes 
of  history. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  natural  growth  in 
things  moral  and  spiritual  can  proceed  only  in  a  direct 
line.  When  a  divine  life  appears  in  a  degenerating 
age,  this  theory  requires  the  inference  that,  natural 
human  forces  having  become  effete  and  exhausted,  a 
miraculous  interference,  like  the  "creation  of  new 
species "  in  the  old  theory  of  biology,  had  become 
necessary.  What  else  should  stop  the  downward  ten- 
dency of  "unaided  nature"?  Such  is  the  usual  method 
of  accounting  for  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and  his  religion  ; 
such  the  principle  of  historical  construction  which  is 
assumed  throughout  the  growth  of  Christian  dogma  :  — 
the  Christ  and  his  gospel  were  a  new  spiritual  species. 
So  far  as  Jesus  is  concerned,  this  theory  in  fact  rests 
on  a  very  superficial  survey  of  the  condition  of  man- 
kind at  his  birth ;  since  his  ethical  and  spiritual  faith 
had  their  tap-roots  within  his  native  soil,  and  followed 
a  line  of  strong  democratic  and  spiritual  tendencies  in 
that  age.  Yet  it  is  also  true  both  of  the  Roman  Empire 
as  a  whole,  and  of  the  old  faiths  that  were  perishing  in 
its  bosom,  that  social  and  religious  life  had,  on  the 
whole,  become  fearfully  degenerate.  Grant  this  to 
the    fullest    extent    possible,    yet    "miraculous   inter- 


INTRODUCTORY.  1 9 

ference "  need  not  be  assumed  in  explanation  of  the 
revival. 

For  there  is  a  law  of  self-recovery  by  reaction,  in 
mind  as  well  as  in  matter ;  different  indeed  from  that, 
as  developing  not  an  equivalent,  but  a  new  and  greater 
force.  It  has  been  described  as  "  forbidding  that  vicious 
ideas  or  institutions  shall  go  so  far  as  their  principle 
logically  demands."  l  It  strikes  back  individuals  and 
nations  from  degeneracy.  It  restrains  excess  in  the 
passions  with  timely  warnings.  And  it  shows  us  each 
historic  period  hastening  to  an  extreme  in  some  special 
direction,  only  that  the  next  may  be  forced  into  doing 
justice  to  a  different  and  balancing  class  of  energies, 
and  so  in  good  time  all  faculty  be  liberated  into  free 
play.  This  natural  law  of  reaction  is  quite  as  essen- 
tial and  constant  as  the  law  of  steady  linear  growth  ; 
though  perhaps,  when  clearly  apprehended,  it  will  be 
found  to  be  but  a  more  interior  and  less  obvious  form 
thereof.  It  is  not  only  essential  to  the  explanation  of 
primitive  Christianity  in  its  relation  to  the  degeneracies 
of  the  epoch,  but  thoroughly  competent  to  that  end. 
It  is  adequate  to  prove  the  phenomenon  a  sign  not  that 
the  spiritual  forces  of  human  nature  had  become  ex- 
hausted, but  that  they  were  exhaustless,  since  even 
suppression  only  nerved  them  to  unprecedented  vigor. 

Of  course  this  natural  solution  of  religious  progress 
does  not  exclude  personal  or  social  inspiration,  ^  .^.^ 
in  any  rational  sense  of  the  word.  It  leaves  to 
religious  genius,  as  to  intellectual,  its  own  unfathomed 
mystery,  its  immediate  insight,  its  spontaneity,  its  en- 
thusiasm, its  fateful  mastery  of  life  and  of  men.  It 
leaves  unquestioned  the  fact  that  there  is  an  element 
in  the  present  instant  which  the  past  cannot  explain. 

1  Guizot,  History  of  Civilization- 


20  INTRODUCTORY. 

Nay :  it  affirms  the  constancy  of  this  transcendence 
and  of  this  primacy  in  the  instantaneous  fact  of  spirit- 
ual perception.  It  recognizes  the  special  energy  of 
intuition  in  the  saint  and  the  seer. 

But  it  implies  that  religious  genius  also  has  its  con- 
ditions, and  inspiration  its  laws ;  and  it  demands  that 
in  this  respect  they  be  placed  in  the  same  line  with 
intellectual  and  poetic  genius,  even  if  in  advance  of 
them.  They  are  not  less  purely  human  than  these, 
either  in  their  original  source,  or  in  the  law  of  their 
appearance. 

The  energy  of  all  these  forces  in  the  early  Oriental 
world  has  seemed  to  me  a  very  noble  illustration  of 
their  universality.  And  I  may  add  that  we  need  not 
be  surprised  to  find,  amidst  the  weaknesses  of  spiritual 
childhood,  certain  superiorities  also,  incident  to  that 
stage,  in  the  qualities  of  imagination,  intuition,  and 
faith,  over  maturer  civilizations. 

In  point  of  moral  earnestness  and  fidelity  also,  it 
admits  of  serious   question  whether  what  we 

Religions  *■ 

judged  by  call  the  highest  form  of  civilization  is  an  ad- 
vance upon  the  phases  of  faith  it  has  been 
accustomed  to  contemn.  Admitting  the  clearer  light 
in  which  science  has  revealed  the  laws  of  social  prog- 
ress, it  would  be  difficult  to  prove  that  races  in  this 
respect  far  behind  us  are  in  any  degree  our  inferiors 
in  those  qualities  of  the  heart  and  the  conscience  which 
lead  to  the  faithful  service  of  what  one  worships,  and 
the  honest  practice  of  what  he  believes.  I  venture 
the  prediction  that  we  shall  yet  learn  of  the  Oriental 
nations  many  lessons  in  moral  simplicity  and  integrity. 
Nothing  could  be  more  unfortunate  for  those  who  wish 
to  exalt  Christianity  by  comparison  with  Heathenism 
than  to  rest  their  argument  on  what  they  call  "judging 


INTRODUCTORY.  21 

religions  by  their  fruits."  A  distinguished  orator  has 
said,  "My  answer  to  Buddha  is  India,  past  and  pres- 
ent." It  would  be  as  reasonable  for  a  Buddhist  to  say, 
"My  answer  to  Christ  is  Judaism,  past  and  present;" 
for  India  rejected  Buddha,  as  Judaism  did  Christ. 
What  India  is  and  has  been,  the  Western  world  will 
probably  be  better  able  to  state  half  a  century  hence 
than  it  is  now.  But  if  the  power  of  a  specific  religion 
is  shown  in  its  ability  to  mould  a  civilization  into  the 
image  of  its  own  moral  and  spiritual  ideal,  what  shall 
be  said  of  one  whose  results  after  eighteen  centuries 
of  preaching  and  instituting  our  orator  must  charac- 
terize by  saying  that  no  one  would  know  its  Founder  if 
he  came  among  us  to-day ;  that  there  is  no  Christian 
community  at  all ;  and  that  Christianity  goes  round 
and  stamps  every  institution  as  a  sin?  We  need  not 
give  too  literal  a  construction  to  expressions  whose 
substantial  meaning  is  justified  by  the  facts.  What  we 
would  note  is  that  these  admissions  concerning  the 
practical  fruits  of  Christianity  are  made  by  its  noblest 
disciples  ;  and  that  they  virtually  confess  its  inadequacy 
to  meet  the  actual  demands  of  social  progress. 

Nevertheless,  its  religious  ideal  is  still  confidently 
presented  as  all  productive,  and  final.  Here  is  evi- 
dently some  misunderstanding  of  the  origin  of  these 
nobler  demands. 

It  is  in  fact  not  the  Christ-ideal  at  all,  as  is  here 
imagined,  but  an  advancing  moral  standard,  due  to 
many  new  causes,  that  now  criticises  the  institutions  in 
question.  Such  institutions  were  in  fact  unmolested 
by  definite  Christian  precepts  or  prohibitions  for  mamr 
ages.  Our  reformer's  inspiration  is  indeed  as  old  as 
Christianity,  —  nay,  more  than  that,  as  old  as  heroism 
and  love ;    but  its  practical   present   resources  lie  in 


2  2  INTRODUCTORY. 

science  and  liberty,  and  even  represent  the  triumph  of 
secular  interests  over  distinctively  religious  opposition. 
And  every  fresh  task  of  the  reformer  is  made  con- 
ceivable only  through  the  accomplishment  of  the  last. 
How  then  can  it  have  been  evolved  solely  out  of  the 
faith  and  virtue  of  eighteen  centuries  ago?  It  is  not 
the  fruit  of  Christianity  alone,  but  generated  by  living 
experience,  in  the  breadth  and  freedom  of  modern 
civilization. 

On  this  whole  subject  of  judging  religions  by  their 
fruits,  we  are  yet  to  collect  the  data  for  a  just  decision  ; 
since  it  involves  the  study  of  civilizations  whose  inner 
movements  have  hitherto  been  in  great  measure  sealed 
from  the  view  of  our  Western  world. 

Man = Man  is  the  broad  formula  of  historical  science, 
,     .        as  well  as  of  practical  brotherhood.     But  it 

Meaning  x 

of  natural  must  not  be  superficially  interpreted.  It  does 
equaity.  ^^  mean  the  falsehood  and  egotism  of  com- 
munistic theories,  which  disintegrate  personality  and 
society  alike  in  the  name  of  an  unconditioned  "equality" 
which  natural  ethics  nowhere  allows.  It  means  that  in 
every  age  and  race,  under  the  varying  surface-currents 
of  organization  and  intellectual  condition,  you  shall 
find  a  deep-sea  calm,  —  the  same  essential  instincts 
and  insights,  aspirations,  tendencies,  demands.  The 
first  vital  problem  of  historical  research  is  to  find 
the  constant  factor,  the  guarantee  of  immutable  and 
eternal  laws,  by  means  of  the  variables.  Its  first 
duty  is  never  to  pause  at  mere  negation,  nor  in- 
dulge in  arrogant  disparagement,  but  to  draw  from 
every  form  of  earnest  faith  or  work  its  witness  of  im- 
mutable law  and  endless  good.  Not  till  this  is  done, 
can  we  wisely  apply  analysis,  and  interpret  the  diver- 
sities of  human  belief. 


INTRODUCTORY.  23 

The  inspiration  of  modern  physical  studies  is  in  the 
universality  of  their  idea  and  aims.     This  fine 

......  .  ,  .  .  _  Universality 

idealism  in  the  exploration  of  nature,  by  lens  m  physical 
and  prism  and  calculus,  which  casts  theologies  studies- 
into  the  background  of  human  interest,  is  preparing 
the  way  for  a  religion  of  religions,  whose  Bible  shall 
be  the  full  word  of  Human  Nature.  How  opulent  the 
time  with  encyclopedic  survey  and  comparative  sci- 
ence !  Humboldt's  "  Cosmos "  was  representative  of 
the  drift  of  the  century ;  a  search  for  that  all-inspher- 
ing  harmony,  of  which  the  worlds  and  ages  and  races 
are  chords.  Humboldt,  pursuing  the  idea  of  unity 
through  immeasurable  deeps  of  law,  with  a  reverence 
that  is  too  full  of  the  spirit  of  worship  to  need  the  cur- 
rent phraseology  of  religion ;  Pritchard,  tracing  the 
physiological,  and  Miiller  the  linguistic,  affinities  of 
the  human  tribes ;  Ritter,  unfolding  the  function  of 
every  continent  and  sea,  every  mountain  range  and 
river  basin,  in  the  development  of  humanity  as  a  whole  ; 
Kirchhoff  and  Bunsen,  with  their  successors,  applying 
spectrum  analysis  to  the  rays  of  every  star,  till  the 
determination  of  the  "  sun's  place  in  the  universe "  is 
but  a  single  element  in  the  immeasurable  significance 
of  light  now  opening  before  this  marvellous  instru- 
ment of  research  ;  Tyndall,  making  the  subtlest  phases 
of  force  a  revelation  of  poetry  and  philosophy,  and  a 
delight  for  the  general  mind,  —  these,  with  others  not 
less  earnestly  pursuing  the'  unities  of  law,  whether 
wisely  or  imperfectly  interpreting  its  evolution  and 
defining  its  higher  facts  and  relations,  represent  the 
physical  science  of  our  time. 

How  should  the  spiritual  nature  fail  to  be  explored 
by  the  same  instinct  ?  It  is  a  deepening  sense  of  the 
unity  of  human  experience,  and  so  of  its  reliability  as 


24  INTRODUCTORY. 

well  as  dignity,  that  banishes  supernaturalism,  affirms 
universal  laws  in  place  of  miracle,  and  bids  us  rest  in 
them  with  entire  trust ;  "  loving,"  as  the  Stoic  Aurelius 
said,  "  whatever  happens  to  us  from  nature,  because 
that  only  can  happen  by  nature  which  is  suitable,  and 
it  is  enough  to  remember  that  law  rules  all."  The 
growing  belief  that  the  stability  of  law  is  the  guar- 
antee of  universal  good,  or,  to  translate  it  into  the 
language  of  the  spirit,  that  Law  means  Love,  is  the 
sicm  that  Love,  in  its  practical  and  universal  sense,  is 
itself  becoming  the  all-solving  calculus  and  all-analyz- 
ino-  prism  of  our  spiritual  astronomy,  —  the  pursuer, 
diviner,  interpreter  of  Law. 

And  therefore  they  who  disapprove  our  inevitable 
exodus  from    distinctive    religions,  upon    the 

In   relation  .    ,  ,    , 

to  Human-  ground  that  organizing  good  works  would  be 
ity'  better  than  reconstructing  theology,  have  very 

slight  comprehension  of  that  which  they  distrust.  It  is 
the  very  spirit  of  humanity  that  is  moving  in  this  relig- 
ious emancipation  ;  clearing  its  own  vision,  reaching  out 
to  consistency  and  self-respect,  and  finding  its  sphere 
to  be,  as  Herder  has  said,  "not  merely  universal  as 
human  nature,  but  properly  no  less  than  human 
nature  itself."1 

"The  object  of  all  religions,"  sings  the  Persian 
Hafiz,  "  is  alike.  All  men  seek  their  beloved.  And 
is  not  all  the  world  love's  dwelling?  Why  talk  of  a 
mosque  or  a  church?"  'Hindu  teachers  have  said: 
"The  creed  of  the  lover  differs  from  other  creeds. 
God  is  the  creed  of  those  who  love  Him  ;  and  to  do 
good  is  best,  with  the  followers  of  every  faith."  "  He 
alone  is  a  true  Hindu  whose  heart  is  just,  and  he  only 
a  good  Mussulman  whose  life  is  pure."     "  Remember 

1  Philosophy  of  Man,  B.  VIII.  ch.  v. 


INTRODUCTORY.  25 

Him  who  has  seen  numberless  Mahomets,  Vishnus, 
Sivas,  come  and  go,  and  who  is  not  found  by  one 
who  forgets  or  turns  away  from  the  poor."  "  The 
common  standpoint  of  the  three  religions,"  say  the 
Chinese,  "is  that  they  insist  on  the  banishment  of  evil 
desire." 

The  Chinese  Buddhist  priest  prays  at  morning  that 
the  music  of  the  bell  which  wakens  him  to  his  matins 
"  may  sound  through  the  whole  world,  and  that  every 
living  soul  may  gain  release,  and  find  eternal  peace  in 
God."1  The  Buddhist  Saviour2  vows  "to  manifest 
himself  to  every  creature  in  the  universe,  and  never 
to  arrive  at  Buddhahood  till  all  are  delivered  from  sin 
into  the  divine  rest,  receiving  answer  to  their  prayers." 
What  else,  or  wherein  better,  is  the  claim  of  the 
Christian  or  the  Jew? 

It  is  so  far  from  being  true  that  the  effort  to  lift 
religions  to  a  common  level  is  antagonistic  to  the 
humanities  of  the  age,  that  these  humanities  could 
not  possibly  dispense  with  such  an  effort.  It  is  their 
natural  expression.  It  is  the  demand  not  so  much 
of  comparative  science  even,  as  of  instant  social  duty. 
Is  it  not  quite  time  that  the  excuses  which  religious 
caste  has  constantly  furnished  for  treating  the  heathen 
as  lawful  prey  of  the  Christian  in  all  quarters  of  the 
globe  were  finally  refuted,  by  bringing  to  view  the 
unities  of  the  religious  sentiment,  and  the  ethical 
brotherhood  of  mankind?  Is  it  not  time  that  claims 
of  exclusive  revelation  ceased,  which  can  only  flatter 
this  spirit  of  caste  ? 

Fourier  tried  to  circumnavigate  the  globe  of  human 
"passions,"  that  he  might  show  how  it  could  be  regu- 
lated for  the  utmost  good  of  all :  surely  a  magnificent 

1  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scriptures.  2  Avalokitiswara. 


26  INTRODUCTORY. 

aim,  however  beyond  any  man's  accomplishment,  and 
whatever  his  mistakes  of  method.  "A  similar  idealism 
testifies  to  the  same  inspiration  in  all  leading  move- 
ments of  modern  thought.  It  is  the  humanitarian 
instinct  that  guarantees  them  :  it  is  this  instinct  that 
forbids  their  falling  away  from  the  very  principles 
that  make  them  colossal  in  stature  and  infinite  in 
reach.  Hence  the  new  sciences  of  mind,  theories  of 
progress,  analyses  of  social  function,  brave  and  broad 
claims  of  equal  opportunity  for  the  races  and  the 
sexes.  Let  us  be  assured  that  Liberty,  Democracy, 
Labor  Reform,  Popular  Progress,  are  to  reach  beyond 
the  assertion  of  exclusive  rights  or  selfish  claims  into 
full  recognition  of  universal  duties ;  that  liberty  is  not 
to  stop  in  license,  nor  democracy  in  greed  and  aggres- 
sion, nor  progress  to  be  earned  through  bloody  retri- 
butions alone. 

And  this  humanitarian  instinct,  which  impels  each 
private  current  towards  the  universal  life,  is  not  only 
recreating  literature  and  art,  but  changing  the  heart 
of  scholarship  also.  It  demands  an  ideal  culture,  that 
shall  give  breadth  and  freedom  to  our  philosophy  of 
life.  It  culls  the  choicest  thought  of  all  time.  It 
would  nurse  every  child  at  the  breast  of  that  oldest 
wisdom  of  love  which  Jesus  confessedly  but  repeated 
as  the  substance  of  the  Hebrew  Law  and  Prophets, 
and  which  in  them  was  but  the  echo  of  all  noble 
human  experience  from  the  beginning  of  time.  It 
transmutes  that  one  mother's  blood  which  flows 
through  the  veins  of  all  ages  to  practical  nerve  and 
manly  sinew  of  present  service.  It  will  discern  the 
fine  gold  in  all  creeds  and  rites,  which  gave  them  en- 
during currency.  It  will  read  in  sphynx  and  pyramid, 
in  prehistoric  bone  heap  an$  sculptured  wall,  in  Druid 


INTRODUCTORY.  27 

Circles  and  Greek  Mysteries,  and  Shemitic  Prophe- 
cies and  the  antique  Bibles  and  Codes,  the  varied 
hieroglyph  of  man's  assurance  of  Deity,  duty,  and 
immortality.  It  will  trace  through  all  transforma- 
tions of  faith  the  eternal  right  of  man's  ideal  to  re- 
interpret life  and  nature,  and  to  change  old  gods  for 
new. 

Even  so  decided  an  opponent  of  naturalistic  religion 
as  Guizot  bears  witness  to  the  constructive  spirit  of 
this  aspiration  to  a  larger  synthesis  of  faith.  "What 
gives  the  modern  movement  against  Christianity  its 
most  formidable  character,"  he  says,  "  is  a  sentiment 
which  has  found  heroes  and  martyrs,  the  love  of  truth 
at  all  risks,  and  despite  of  consequences,  for  the  sake 
of  truth  and  for  its  sake  alone."  If  such  a  spirit  as 
this  is  "formidable"  to  Christianity,  could  there  be 
stronger  proof  thaf  the  time  for  that  free  culture 
which  it  demands  is  fully  come? 

The  scholar  must  identify  himself  with  the  social 
reformer,  and  demonstrate  brotherhood  out  of  Duty  of  the 
the  old  Bibles  and  the  stammering  speech  of  Scholar- 
primitive  men.  It  is  his  duty  to  show  that  the  human 
arteries  beat  everywhere  with  the  same  royal  blood. 
It  is  his  duty  to  help  break  down  the  strongholds  of 
theological  and  social  contempt,  and  refute  the  pre- 
tences by  which  strong  races  have  ever  justified  their 
oppression  of  the  weak.  He  may  avail  himself  of 
Comparative  Philology,  or  Comparative  Physiology, 
or  of  any  other  branch  of  ethnological  science.  The 
materials  are  at  last  abundant,  the  laborers  in  these 
harvests  equal  to  his  utmost  need.  But  if  all  these 
resources  should  prove  inadequate  ;  if  the  language, 
physical  organization,  and  social  condition  of  any 
race,   should  all   appear  to   invite   the  contempt   of 


28  INTRODUCTORY. 

Christian  nations,  there  is  still  left  the  testimony  of 
the  religious  sentiment.  The  essential  unity  of  man 
does  not  rest  on  physiological,  but  on  psychological 
grounds. 

A  true  philosophy  of  History  will  know  how  to 
reconcile  this  identity  in  the  substance  with  phases  of 
progressive  development.  But  no  theory  will  serve, 
which  fails  to  recognize  it  as  real  in  every  one  of 
these  phases.  Formulas  are  as  dangerous  as  they  are 
fascinating.  Thus  Hegel,  compelled  by  his  formal 
logic,  regards  the  Oriental  religions  as  merely  repre- 
senting man  in  the  undeveloped  state  of  non-distinc- 
tion from  nature ;  in  other  words,  in  pure  bondage  to 
the  senses.  And  so,  as  elsewhere,  his  philosophical 
generalization  plays  into  the  hands  of  theological  prej- 
udice. It  tells  but  half  the  truth.  It  ignores  the  fact 
that  man  himself  was  the  soul  of  these  earlier  faiths. 
There  were  incessantly  noble  reactions  which  pro- 
tested against  such  bondage  as  he  describes,  and 
justified  human  nature,  as  genius  and  intuition  and 
free  self-consciousness,  even  in  the  crude  experience 
of  its  earlier  children;  although  men  had  not  yet 
learned  to  analyze  the  mysteries  of  subject  and  object, 
Being  and  Thought.  Let  us  be  admonished  by  the 
hint  of  the  old  Buddhist  poet :  — 

"  The  depths  of  antiquity  are  full  of  light.  Scarce- 
ly have  a  few  rays  been  transmitted  to  us.  We  are 
like  infants  born  at  midnight.  When  we  see  the  sun 
rise,  we  think  that  yesterday  never  was." 

The  opening  of  China  to  the  Western  nations,  and 
Religious  of  the  West  to  Chinese  emigration  and  labor, 
revolution    are  events  as  momentous  in  their  religious  as 

approach-  . 

ing.  in   their   commercial    and   political   bearings. 


INTRODUCTORY.  20, 

Taken  in  connection  with  revolutions  in  Japan  indi- 
cating the  growth  of  a  liberal  policy,  and  with  the  rapid 
disclosure  of  the  field  of  Hindu  literature  and  life 
during  the  past  half  century,  they  announce  a  new 
phase  in  the  education  of  Christendom.  It  is  as  cer- 
tain that  the  complacent  faith  of  the  Christian  Church 
in  itself  as  the  sole  depositary  of  religious  truth  is  to 
be  startled  and  confounded  by  the  new  experience, 
as  that  the  fixed  ideas  of  that  huge  population  which 
swarms  along  the  great  river-arteries  of  China,  and 
heaps  flowers  in  the  temples  of  spirit-ancestors,  and 
bows  at  shrines  of  Confucius  and  Fo,  are  to  be  as- 
tounded at  the  immense  resources  of  the  "  outside  bar- 
barians," and  their  peculiar  worship  of  Mammon  and 
Christ.  The  time  has  arrived,  in  the  providence  of 
modern  social  and  industrial  progress,  for  a  mutual 
interchange  of  experience  between  the  East  and  the 
West,  for  which  neither  was  prepared,  but  which  is 
quite  indispensable  to  the  advancement  of  both  forms 
of  civilization. 

In  their  natural  impatience  to  count  these  unknown 
millions  as  converts  to  Christian  theology,  the  Not  an  ec_ 
Churches  but  feebly  comprehend  the  serious-  ciesiasticai 
ness  of  the  situation.  Dreams  of  denomina-  °PPortumty- 
tional  trophies  won  in  these  realms  of  Pagan  night, 
where  the  tidings  of  salvation  by  the  power  or  the 
blood  of  Christ  are  to  come  as  a  long-desired  dawn 
of  day,  will  probably  prove  illusory.  Missionary  zeal 
has  been  but  a  poor  spell  to  conjure  with.  All  its 
auguries  and  exorcisms  have  failed.  The  real  oppor- 
tunity  and  promise  is  of  another  kind.  The  world  of 
religion  is  wider  than  Christendom  has  apprehended, 
and  it  is  undoubtedly  destined  to  widen  in  the  sight  of 
man  as  much  as  the  world  of  population  and  trade. 


30  INTRODUCTORY. 

Christianity,  as  well  as  Heathendom,  is  on  the  eve  of 
judgment.  It  is  to  discover  that  it  has  much  to  learn 
as  well  as  to  teach.  I  firmly  believe  that  in  making 
the  worship  of  Jesus  as  "  the  Christ  "  —  which,  more 
than  any  essential  difference  in  moral  precept  or 
religious  intuition,  forms  its  actual  distinction  from 
other  religions  —  a  prescriptive  basis  of  faith,  it  will 
strike  against  a  mass  of  outside  human  experience  so 
overwhelming  as  to  put  beyond  doubt  the  futility  of 
pressing  either  this  or  any  other  exclusive  claim  as 
authoritative  for  mankind.  I  have  written  in  no  spirit 
of  negation  towards  aught  that  deserves  respect  in  its 
faith  or  its  purpose ;  in  no  disparagement  of  what  is 
eternally  noble  and  dear  to  man  in  the  life  of  Jesus ; 
but  with  the  sincere  desire  to  help  in  bridging  the 
gulf  of  an  inevitable  transition  in  religious  belief,  and 
in  pointing  out  the  better  foundations  already  arising 
amidst  these  tides  that  will  not  spare  the  ancient  foot- 
holds and  contented  finalities  of  faith.  And  in  this 
spirit  it  is,  that,  after  such  serious  study  of  the  Re- 
ligions of  the  East,  their  bibles  and  traditions,  as  has 
been  possible,  without  direct  acquaintance  with  the 
Oriental  languages,  —  through  the  labors  of  scholars 
like  Lassen,  Schlegel,  Weber,  Rosen,  Kuhn,  Wilson, 
Burnouf,  Bunsen,  Spiegel,  Riickert,  Muller,  Legge, 
Bastian,  our  own  Whitney,  and  of  many  others,  render- 
ing such  direct  acquaintance  comparatively  needless, 
—  I  have  reached  the  conviction  that  these  oldest  relig- 
ions have  an  exceedingly  important  function  to  fulfil  in 
that  present  transformation  of  the  latest  into  a  purer 
Theism,  which  is  still  irreverently  denounced  as  infi- 
delity. The  mission  of  Christianity  to  the  heathen  is 
not  only  for  the  overthrow  of  many  of  their  religious 
peculiarities,  but  quite  as  truly  for  the  essential  mod- 


INTRODUCTORY. 


31 


ificatioii  of  its  own.  The  change  from  distinctive 
Christianity  to  Universal  Religion  is  a  revolution,  com- 
pared with  which  the  passage  from  Judaism  to  Chris- 
tianity itself  was  trivial. 

Here  is  the  practical  situation.  Christendom  is 
henceforth  to  face  those  older  civilizations  out  The  situa. 
of  which  its  own  life  has  in  large  measure  tion- 
proceeded,  and  on  which  its  reactions  have  hitherto 
made  scarcely  any  impression.  Brought  into  intimate 
relations  with  races  whose  beliefs  are  more  obstinate 
than  its  own,  and  even  more  firmly  rooted  in  "  super- 
natural "  claims,  it  will  be  obliged  to  drop  all  exclu- 
siveness  and  absolutism,  defer  to  the  common  light 
of  natural  religion,  and  do  justice  to  instincts  and  con- 
victions that  have  sustained  other  civilizations  through 
longer  periods  than  its  own.  The  movement  is  not 
retrograde,  but  in  the  direct  line  of  our  own  American 
growth ;  a  promise  of  science  and  a  consequence  of 
liberty.  It  can  be  regarded  as  a  return  to  bygone 
systems  only  by  those  whose  own  feet  cling  too  closely 
to  special  traditions  to  venture  on  testing  what  lies 
beyond  them.  As  well  think  it  makes  no  difference 
whether  one  goes  to  China  with  Agassiz  in  a  Pacific 
steamer,  or  as  a  Middle  Age  monk  across  the  sands 
of  Gobi.  The  new  wisdom  make&rand  finds  all  the 
old  life  new.  A  richer  and  deeper  synthesis  beckons 
us,  of  which  telegraph  and  treaty  are  but  symbols. 
There  are  divine  recognitions  in  that  grasp  of  broth- 
erly hands  which  will  soon  complete  the  circuit  of  the 
physical  globe. 

Scholars  have  not  been  wanting  who  bring  us  hints 
of  this  large  communion  from  the  Scriptures  of  the 
East.  Here  and  there  a  thoughtful  traveller  or  a 
liberal  missionary  has  noted  the  brighter  facts,  that 


32  INTRODUCTORY. 

tell  for  human  nature,  and  explain  the  social  perma- 
nence and  enduring  faith  of  these  strange  civilizations. 
Even  from  the  Catholic  Church,  as  we  have  already 
said,  have  come  many  willing  tributes,  however  per- 
verted to  the  support  of  its  own  claims,  to  the  idea 
that  revelation  has  in  no  wise  been  confined  to  one 
person,  race,  or  religion.  But  the  strongest  evidence 
has  failed  of  its  due  effect  thus  far,  because  the  prac- 
tical interests  of  society  had  not  compelled  attention 
to  these  distant  fields.  At  last  their  immensity,  as 
well  as  actuality,  becomes  a  fact  of  common  experi- 
ence ;  and  the  ethics  of  Confucius  and  the  piety  of  the 
Vedas  are  to  stand  as  real  and  positive  before  the  mind 
of  Christendom  as  the  mercantile  and  political  inter- 
ests that  give  dignity  to  this  opening  of  the  great  gates 
of  the  Morning  Land. 

"  Ex  Oriente  Lux  ! "  Light  from  the  East  once 
The  Prom-  more !  As  it  came  to  Greece  in  the  "  Sacred 
ise-  Mysteries  "  with  the   Dorians  and  the  Pytha- 

goreans and  the  Chaldaic  Oracles  ;  to  Alexandria 
in  Philo  and  Plotinus ;  to  Europe  in  Judaism  and 
Christianity ;  to  the  Middle  Ages  by  the  Crusades,  in 
floods  of  legend  and  fable,  the  imaginative  lore  that 
was  itself  an  education  of  the  ideal  faculty,  and  pre- 
pared the  way  f<|r  modern  liberty  and  aesthetic  cul- 
ture,—  so  now  again  it  comes  to  modern  civilization 
through  literature,  and  commerce  and  religious  sym- 
pathy ;  and,  as  ever  before,  with  a  mission  to  help 
clear  the  sight  and  enlarge  the  field  of  belief.  Chris- 
tendom will  not  become  Buddhist,  nor  bow  to  Confu- 
cius, nor  worship  Brahma ;  but  it  will  render  justice 
to  the  one  spiritual  nature  which  spoke  in  ways  as 
yet  unrecognized,  in  these  differing  faiths.  It  will 
learn  that  Religion  itself  is  more  than  any  positive 


INTRODUCTORY.  33 

form  under  which  it  has  appeared,  and  rests  on  broader 
and  deeper  authority  than  can  ever  be  confined  in  a 
prescribed  ideal.  The  religious  sentiment  demands 
freedom  from  its  own  exclusive  venerations,  that  it 
may  recognize  principles  in  their  own  validity,  and 
instead  of  revolving  in  endless  beat  around  some 
pivotal  personality,  some  fixed  historic  name  or  sym- 
bol, front  directly  the  spiritual  laws  and  facts  which 
man  has  ever  sought  to  recognize  and  express,  and 
find  them  ample  guaranties  of  growth,  and  ministers 
of  good. 

These  bearings  of  the  present  work  on  questions 
now  uppermost  in  the  religious  conscious-  Limitsand 
ness  are  summed  up  in  the  outset,  not  in  Purpose  of 
order  to  forestall  the  reader's  judgment  on  the  l 
field  of  inquiry  before  him,  but  in  justice  to  that  inde- 
pendent attitude  towards  distinctive  religions,  which  is 
demanded  alike  by  science,  philosophy,  and  human- 
ity, enforced  by  the  results  of  historical  study,  and 
recognized  by  religion  itself  as  a  new  birth  of  in- 
tellectual freedom  and  spiritual  power.  While  our 
criticism  must  point  out  deficiency  of  this  universal 
element,  and  hostility  to  it,  wherever  they  appear,  yet 
the  substantial  spirit  and  motive  of  these  studies  is  not 
polemical  nor  even  theological.  As  far  as  they  go 
in  regions  of  research  whose  immensity  the  largest 
scholarship  does  but  open  (and  of  these  I  would  be 
understood  as  but  aspiring  to  sketch  the  general  out- 
line) ,  they  would  record  the  ethical  and  spiritual  im- 
port of  those  older  civilizations,  whose  seats  were  in 
India,  China,  and  Persia  previous  to  the  Christian 
epoch ;  with  such  light  from  their  later  forms  and 
results  as  may  be  required  for  their  appreciation.  I 
would  emphasize  in  them  whatever  may  encourage 

3 


34  INTRODUCTORY. 

respect  for  human  nature,  while  hiding  none  of  their 
darker  features ;  which  indeed  do  but  illustrate  the 
common  inadequacy  of  all  past  forms  of  faith  in  view 
of  our  new  and  still  advancing  ideals,  and  so  must 
the  more  commend  religion  to  the  forward  step  and 
aim.  Ill-understood  beliefs  and  institutions,  whereof 
we  ourselves  are  not  without  representative  forms,  I 
would  trace  to  their  roots  in  the  spontaneities  of  spirit- 
ual being,  and  make  as  clear  as  I  may  the  essential 
identity  of  human  aspirations,  under  conditions  of  ex- 
perience and  in  stages  of  progress  the  most  diverse. 

Finally,  within  these  limits  of  inquiry,  I  would  note 
directions  in  which  the  differing  civilizations  may  help 
to  supply  each  other's  defects ;  and,  in  sum,  endeavor 
to  bring  the  old  antipodal  races  now  practically  at  our 
doors  under  that  light  of  free  and  fair  inquiry  which 
justice  to  them  and  to  the  common  good  requires. 


INDIA. 


RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 


:>:=e=:°— 


I. 

THE     PRIMITIVE    ARYAS. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS. 


r  I  ^HAT  elevated  region  in  Central  Asia  extending 
-*-  from  the  Hindu  Kuh  to  the  Armenian  The  Aryan 
mountains,  which  is  now  known  as  the  pla-  Homestead- 
teau  of  Iran,  is  entitled  to  be  called  in  an  important 
sense  the  homestead  of  the  human  family.  It  was  at 
least  the  ancestral  abode  of  those  races  which  have 
hitherto  led  the  movement  of  civilization.  Its  position 
and  structure  are  wonderfully  appropriate  to  such  a 
function ;  for  this  main  focus  of  ethnic  radiation  is 
also  the  geographical  centre  of  the  Eastern  hemi- 
sphere. "  There,  at  the  intersection  of  the  continental 
axes,  stands  the  real  apex  of  the  earth."1  And  its 
borders  rise  on  every  side  into  commanding  mountain 
knots  and  ranges,  that  look  eastward  over  the  steppes 
of  Thibet  and  the  plains  of  India,  westward  down  the 
Assyrian  lowlands  towards  the  Mediterranean,  north- 
ward over  the  wide  sands  of  Central  Asia,  and  south- 
ward across  Arabia  and  the  Tropic  Seas.  "  Where 
else,"  demands  Herder,  with  natural  enthusiasm, 
if  not  with  scientific  knowledge,  "  should  man,  the 
summit  of  creation,  come  into  being?"  Whatever 
answer  be  given  to  this  still  open  question,  the  sym- 
bolism of  the  majestic  plateau  points,  we  may  suggest, 

1  Reclus,  The  Earth. 


4-0  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

to  higher  human  meaning  than  that  of  the  mere  his- 
torical beginning  of  the  race. 

The  languages  and  mythologies  of  nearly  all  the 
great  historic  races,  in  their  widest  dispersion,  point 
back  to  these  mountain  outlooks  of  Iran.  Hindu, 
Persian,  Hebrew,  Mongol,  kneel  towards  these  vener- 
able heights,  as  their  common  fatherland  ;  a  primeval 
Eden,  peopled  by  their  earliest  legends  with  gods  and 
genii,  and  long-lived,  happy  men.  The  homes  of 
ancient  civilization  rose  around  their  bases,  as  under 
the  shadow  of  a  patriarchal  tent ;  and  there  they 
were  gathered  to  the  dust.  The  drift  of  forty  centu- 
ries of  human  history  lies  amidst  their  recesses,  and 
strewn  over  the  spaces  which  they  enclose ;  attesting 
what  storms  and  tides  of  life  have  preceded  our  own ; 
vestiges  of  aspiration  and  achievement  hid  in  pre- 
historic times ;  relics  of  old  religions ;  inscriptions  in 
mysterious  tongues ;  local  names,  whose  vague  ety- 
mological affinities  suggest  startling  relations  between 
widely  separated  ages  and  races.  The  highways  of 
the  oldest  commerce  strike  across  this  plateau,  and 
out  from  it  on  either  side ;  and  caravan  tracks  of  im- 
memorial age  hint  the  lines  of  those  primitive  migra- 
tions that  issued  from  its  colossal  gates.  We  seem  to 
be  contemplating  a  marvellous  symbol  of  the  unity  of 
the  human  race  and  of  its  movement  in  history ;  born 
out  of  the  mystic  intimacy  of  Nature  with  its  inmost 
meaning. 

Of  the  primeval  life  of  races  on  this  grander  Ararat 
we  know  but  little.  Why  indeed  should  we  call  it 
primeval  ?  It  is  but  a  step  or  two  that  history  or  sci- 
ence can  penetrate  towards  any  form  of  human  life 
that  would  really  deserve  that  nan^e.  Should  we  gain 
much  by  knowing  the  crudest  human  conditions,  after 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS.  41 

all?  It  is  said  that  there  are  tribes  in  Thibet  that 
glory  in  believing  themselves  descended  from  apes.1 
Darwinians  would  probably  be  content  to  glory  in 
merely  getting  sight  of  the  process,  if  that  could  be 
found.  But  even  if  we  should  come  upon  traces  of 
it,  whether  in  Thibet  or  elsewhere,  would  it  show  the 
oriofin  of  man,  as  mind;  that  is,  as  Man  ?  This  is 
a  mystery  involved  in  every  step  of  mental  evolution ; 
in  the  fact  of  thinking,  now;  and  we  cannot  account 
for  this  evolution  by  any  previous  steps.  We  shall 
hardly  find  the  source  of  our  personality  by  tracking 
it  backward  and  downward  into  nought. 

I  do  not  even  enter  here  into  the  question,  whether 
the  eastern  or  the  western  edge  of  the  great  plateau 
was  first  peopled ;  or  whether  Armenia  or  Bactria 
was  the  earliest  centre  of  ethnic  radiation.  The 
oldest  Bibles  "belong  to  the  modern  history  of  the 
race."  What  are  patriarchal  legends,  what  is  Balkh, 
"  mother  of  cities,"  what  is  Ararat  or  Belur-Tagh, 
what  are  Aryas  or  Shemites,  what  is  Adam  or  Manu, 
—  to  him  who  explores  the  pathless,  voiceless  ages  ) 
of  prehistoric  man?  There  is  no  respect  of  persons 
or  places  in  that  silence  of  unnumbered  centuries  that 
shrouds  the  infancy  of  the  soul. 

It  suffices  to  say  that  in  'the  dawn  of  history  we 
find  the  Hindus  descending  from  these  heights  of 
Central  Asia  to  the  South,2  the  Iranians  to  the  West, 
and  the  Chinese  to  the  East. 

Let  us  turn  to  that  focus  of  movement,  of  which  we 
know  the  most, — to  the  Bactrian  Highlands,  at  the 
north-eastern  extremity  of  Iran,  nestling  under  the 
multitudinous  heights  of  the  Belur-Tagh  and  Hindu 

1  Klaproth,  Asia  Polyglotta. 

2  See  proofs  and  authorities  in  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts.,  ii.  306-322. 


42  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

Kuh.  They  who  have  penetrated  farthest  into  these 
mountain  ranges  report  that  the  silent  abysses  of  the 
midnight  sky  with  its  intensely  burning  stars,  and 
the  colossal  peaks  lifting  their  white  masses  beyond 
storms,  impress  the  imagination  with  such  a  sense  of 
fathomless  mystery  and  eternal  repose  as  no  other 
region  on  earth  can  suggest.  The  mean  altitude  of 
these  summits  of  Himalaya,  the  Home  of  Snow,  is  lof- 
tier than  that  of  any  other  mountain  system  in  the  world  ; 
and  their  mighty  faces,  unapproachable  by  man,  over- 
look vast  belts  of  forest  which  he  has  not  ventured  to 
explore.  From  one  point  Hooker  saw  twenty  snow 
peaks,  each  over  twenty  thousand  feet  in  height,  whose 
white  ridge  of  frosted  silver  stretched  over  the  whole 
horizon  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  degrees.  Here 
are  splendors  and  glooms,  unutterable  powers,  im- 
penetrable reserves,  correspondent  to  that  spiritual 
nature  in  whose  earlier  education  they  bore  an  es- 
sential part.  , 

Here  is  the  mythological  Mount  Meru  of  the  Hin- 
dus,—  "centre  of  the  seven  worlds,  and  seed-vessel 
of  the  Universe."  Here  are  Borj  and  Arvand,  the 
celestial  mountain  and  river  of  the  Persians.  Here 
perhaps  is  the  Eden  of  the  Semites.  "  Kashmir," 
says  the  Mahabharata,  "  is  all  holy,  inhabited  by 
saints."  Here  is  the  plateau  of  Pamer,  regarded 
throughout  Asia  as  the  "dome  of  the  world."  "  Men 
go  to  the  North,"  say  the  Brahmanas,  "to  learn  speech." 
Here  Manu,  the  Hindu  Noah,  led  by  a  fish  through 
the  deluge  waters,  comes  to  shore  on  a  mountain-top, 
and  when  they  subside  descends  to  people  the  South- 
ern land.1  Here  the  Greeks  saw  an  ideal  climate, 
allowing  every  variety  of  product,  wondrously  fecund 

1  Satapatha  Brahmana. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS. 


43 


in  plants,  animals,  and  men ;  and  guarded  from  intru- 
sion by  mysterious  tribes  and  half-human  creatures, 
with  marvellous  powers  over  the  hidden  treasures  of 
the  earth.1  It  was  the  great  unwritten  Bible  of  Asia, 
the  free  field  of  imagination  and  faith.  Here  was 
Balkh,  in  Oriental  tradition  the  "  Mother  of  Cities," 
the  starting-point  of  culture,  the  birthplace  of  the 
Zoroastrian  fire.  Here  are  sacred  lakes  and  mystic 
fountains,  the  immemorial  resort  of  pilgrims  from 
every  quarter  of  the  East.  The  Chinese  Buddhists 
say  that  a  lake  on  the  summit  of  the  Himalaya  is  the 
origin  of  all  the  rivers  of  the  world.  And  in  fact,  from 
the  mountain  system  of  which  this  region  is  the  centre, 
the  great  rivers  of  Asia  descend  on  every  side,  —  the 
Oxus,  the  Yaxartes,  the  Yang-tze-kiang,  the  Brahma- 
pootra, the  Indus,  and  the  Ganges.  Again  we  cannot 
but  recognize  an  impressive  symbol  of  the  wealth  and 
scope  of  human  nature ;  and  not  less  of  its  love  of 
broad  divergence  into  special  forms,  made  kindred  by 
far-reaching  supplies  of  one  inspiration,  ever  flowing 
from  central  springs. 

It  is  in  a  spot  so  rich  in  spiritual  suggestion  that  we 
are  to  seek  our  earliest  data  for  the  Natural  TheWit. 
History  of  Religion.  What  were  the  resources  ness- 
of  human  nature  at  that  remote  epoch  when  the  ances- 
tors of  the  principal  modern  races  dwelt  on  these  high- 
lands of  Central  Asia  ?  It  is  only  of  the  Indo-European 
family — comprising  the  historical  Hindus,  the  Per- 
sians, and  the  various  races  of  Europe,  excepting 
Jews,  Turks,  Basques,  Finns,  and  Magyars  —  that  we 
can  render  a  positive  answer.  And  even  of  this  pre- 
eminent family  of  nations  we  cannot  speak  from  data 
afforded  by  the  ordinary  forms  of  testimony.     For  we 


1  Curtius,  Strabo,  Ptolemy. 


44 


RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 


have  here  to  do  with  a  period  far  antecedent,  not  only 
to  the  oldest  Bibles  of  mankind,  but  even  to  the  very 
notion  of  such  a  thing  as  the  transmission  of  knowl- 
edge. But  in  these  prehistoric  deeps,  where  even  the 
half-blind  guides  of  mythology  and  tradition  fail,  we 
greet  a  fresh  source  of  scientific  certainty.  It  seems 
as  if  the  infancy  of  man  became  but  a  starless  night, 
in  respect  of  all  those  dubious  guides  by  whose  aid  we 
penetrate  the  past,  in  order  that  the  pure  testimony  of 
language,  alone  illuminating  it,  might  make  his  divine 
origin  unmistakable.  For  language  is,  as  the  oldest 
faith  and  the  latest  science  unite  to  declare  it,  an  inspira- 
tion. It  is  no  arbitrary  invention,  like  the  steam  engine 
or  the  cotton  gin  ;  no  mere  imitation  of  natural  sounds  ; 
but  the  natural  result  of  a  perfect  correspondence  be- 
tween the  outward  organ  and  the  inward  processes, 
which  must  have  material  expression.  Its  testimony  pro- 
ceeds from  no  interested  witnesses,  from  no  treacherous 
prejudices,  from  no  play  of  imagination,  but  from  the 
certainties  of  organic  law.  Men  do  not  invent  names 
for  things  of  which  they  have  no  idea.  A  people 
puts  its  character  and  its  history  into  its  language, 
without  hypocrisy  and  without  reserve.  It  is  a  spon- 
taneous creation.  The  "Word  "has  always  been  re- 
cognized as  the  fittest  symbol  of  truth,  as  the  purest 
manifestation  of  deity. 

This  unimpeachable  witness  it  is,  that  testifies  of  man 
in  an  antiquity  where  no  other  is  possible.  And  the 
most  primitive  fact  we  know  of  his  nature  is  thus  a 
certain  unconscious  honesty,  that  discloses  his  inner 
life  without  disguise. 

It  is  by  the  testimony  of  Language  that  the  nations 
called  Aryan  or,  more  properly,  Indo-European,  are 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS.  45 

brought  into  a  single  class  and  referred  to  a  common 
origin.1  And  the  next  step  has  been,  to  recover  out 
of  the  mass  of  words  or  roots  common  to  the  lan- 
guages of  these  nations  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
primitive  language  spoken  by  the  parent  race  in  its 
Bactrian  Highlands  previous  to  dispersion  into  many 
branches.2  The  best  philological  scholarship  of  the 
age  has  been  employed  upon  this  reconstruction.  It 
may  fairly  be  said  that  we  are  able  already  to  look 
directly  in  upon  the  character  and  condition  of  these 
hitherto  unknown  ancestors  of  the  Hindu  and  the  Per- 
sian, of  the  Greek  and  the  Roman,  the  Celt  and  the 
Teuton.  UNo  achievement  of  modern  science  is  more 
brilliant  or  more  marvellous.!  It  is  the  result  of  a 
comparative  Philology  as  subtile  as  the  calculations  of 
Astronomy.  It  has  evoked  from  human  data  hitherto 
unintelligible  the  substance  of  a  lost  language  and  a 
forgotten  race,  as  astronomers  have  applied  the  strange 
perturbations  of  the  solar  system  to  effect  the  discovery 
of  hidden  planets.  It  is  not  over-confident  to  claim 
positive  certainty  for  the  general  result  here  stated. 
Enough  is  already  achieved  in  this  field  to  justify  its 
most  skilful  explorers  in  claiming  for  it  the  name  of 
Linguistic  Palaeontology. 


3 


1  See  especially  the  researches  of  Burnouf  and  Bopp. 

2  We  do  not  mean  that  Pictet,  Eichhoff,  Schleicher,  Kuhn,  Fick,  and  other  scholars, 
have  succeeded  in  reconstructing  the  language  actually  spoken  by  the  original  Indo- 
Europeans,  out  of  the  radicals  afforded  by  this  comparison  of  tongues.  But  their  re- 
searches prove  at  least  competent  to  show  the  objects  which  that  language  was  used  to 
designate,  and  the  mind  of  the  people  who  used  it- 

8  Pictet,  Origines  Indo-Europeenes,  or  Les  Aryas  Primitifs.  See  also  Spiegel's 
Avesta,  II.,  Einleit.  cxi.-cxv.  ;  A.  Kuhn  in  Weber's  Iitdische  Studien,  I.  321-363  ;  Las- 
sen's Indische  Alterthumskunde,  I.  527;  Muller,  Science  0/  Languages,  234-236; 
Duncker,  Gesch.  d.  Alterthums,  III.  9  ;  Schoebel,  Richerches  stir  la  Religion  Prem.  de 
la  Race  Indo-Europ.  (Paris,  1868);  Whitney,  Study  of  Language  (Lect.  V.);  Muir, 
Sanskrit  Texts,  II. ;  Fick,  Worterbuch  d.  Indog.  Sj>rache. 


46  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

The  common  name  by  which  the  Indian  and  Iranian 
The  Testi-  (or  Persian)  branches  of  this  great  family  des- 
mony.  ignated  themselves  was  Aryas  (in  Zend,  Air- 
yas)  ;  a  title  of  honor,1  which  now,  after  thousands  of 
years,  returns,  in  scientific  nomenclature,  to  justify 
their  self-respect  by  the  magnificent  record  of  Euro- 
pean civilization.  The  first  fixed  datum  for  our  prime- 
val people  is  therefore  their  name. 
-*  It  further  appears  from  these  researches  that  the 
Aryas  lived  in  fixed  habitations,  kept  herds,  and  tilled 
the  soil.  They  occupied  a  diversified  region,  richly 
watered  and  wooded,  and  highly  metalliferous ;  its 
climate,  flora,  and  fauna  corresponding  with  the  de- 
scriptions of  Bactriana  which  have  come  down  to  us 
from  the  Greek  geographers,  and  which  are  confirmed 
by  modern  travellers.2  It  was  cold  enough  to  stir  the 
blood  and  to  make  them  number  their  years  by  win- 
ters. Their  houses  were  roofed,  and  had  windows  and 
doors.  Barley,  the  grain  of  cool  climates,  was  their 
commonest  cereal.  Their  wealth  was  in  their  cattle. 
Names  for  race,  tribe,  family  relations,  property  and 
trade,  for  the  inn,  the  guest,  the  master,  the  king, 
were  all  taken  from  words  which  designated  the  herd. 
They  called  dawn  the  "  mustering  time  of  the  cows ;  " 
evening,  the  "hour  of  bringing  them  home."  They 
had  domesticated  the  cow,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  the 
horse,  and  the  dog.  The  cow  was  the  "  slow  walker ;  " 
the  ox,  "  the  vigorous  one  ;  "  the  dog  was  "  speed  ;  "  the 
wolf,  "the  destroyer."  They  used  yokes  and  axles 
and  probably  ploughs ;  wrought  in  various  metals ; 
spun  and  wove ;  had  vessels  made  of  wood,  leather, 
terracotta,   and   metal ;    and   musical   instruments  of 

1  Compare  Greek  aptTTj,  valor,  and  German  ehre,  honor.       k 

2  Pictet,  I.  35-42. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS. 


47 


shells  and  reeds.  They  counted  beyond  a  hundred. 
They  navigated  rivers  in  oared  boats ;  fought  with 
bows,  clubs,  bucklers,  lances,  and  swords,  in  battle 
chariots  and  to  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  conchs. 
They  besieged  each  other  in  towns;  employed  spies, 
and  reduced  their  enemies  to  some  kind  of  servitude, 
of  which  we  know  not  the  extent. 

Domestic  relations  rested  on  sentiments  of  affection 
and  respect.  There  are  no  signs  of  polygamy.  Patri- 
archal absolutism  was  tempered  by  natural  instincts. 
Father  meant  "  the  protector ;  "  mother,  "  the  former 
and  disposer  ;  "  brother,  "  the  supporter ;  "  and  sister, 
"the  careful,"  or  "the  consoling,  pleasing  one."  The 
primitive  names  of  these  forms  of  relationship  have 
been  transmitted  with  slight  change  through  most 
branches  of  the  Indo-European  race  even  to  the  pres- 
ent day.  And  thus  the  closest  domestic  ties  not  only 
became,  as  common  speech,  the  symbols  of  an  ethnic 
brotherhood,  which  time  and  space  are  bound  to  guard 
and  expand,  but  were  sealed  also  to  immortal  mean- 
ings for  the  moral  nature  by  the  oldest  testimony  of 
mankind.  And  the  affirmations  of  conscience,  the 
words  of  the  Spirit,  were  not  less  clearly  pronounced, 
in  other  directions.1 

The  Aryas  had  clear  conceptions  of  the  rights  of 
property  and  definite  guarantees  for  their  protection. 
These  guarantees  were  based  on  ownership  of  the 
soil  where  the  family  altar  stood,  concentrating  the 
sentiment  of  piety.  We  see  at  how  early  a  period 
men  recognized  the  natural  dependence  of  those 
necessary  conditions  of  social  order,  the   family  and 

1  Kuhn,  in  Weber's  Ind.  Studien,  I.  321-363 ;  Lassen,  I.  813 ;  Miiller,  Oxford 
Essays  for  18 56  ;  Weber,  Lecture  on  India.  (Berlin,  1854);  Miiller,  Science  of  Language, 
236;   Pictet,  II.  746. 


48  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

the  home,  on  fixed  and  permanent  ownership  of 
land.  Communistic  schemes  have  never  yet  suc- 
ceeded, among  the  Indo-Europeans,  in  overcoming 
this  instinctive  wisdom,  which  loyally  maintains  the 
Family,  the  Home,  and  private  Property  in  Land 
as  mutually  dependent  factors  of  civilization.  And 
we  may  infer  from  the  sacredness  attached  by  the 
Hindus,  Greeks,  and  Romans  to  bounds,  whether  by 
stones,  or  by  ploughed  trenches,  or  by  vacant  spaces, 
—  each  family  thus  marking  off  its  real  estate  from 
its  neighbors,  —  that  this  reverence  for  property  limits 
was  also  a  trait  of  the  older  race  of  which  they  were 
the  branches.1 

The  Aryas  had  formalities  for  transactions  of  ex- 
change and  sale,  for  payment  of  wages,  and  for  the 
administration  of  oaths.  All  the  essential  elements  of 
social  order  were  evidently  present  in  this  primitive 
civilization,  the  cradle  of  historic  races*  Law  was 
designated  by  a  word  which  meant  right.  The  notion 
of  justice  was  associated  with  the  straight  line,  sug- 
gestive of  directness  and  impartiality.  Transgression 
meant  falling  off,  and  oath  constraint? 

Their  psychological  insight  surprises  us.  They 
seem  to  have  distinguished  clearly  the  principle  of 
spiritual  existence.  Soul  was  not  merely  vital  breath, 
but  thinking  being.  Thought  was  recognized  as 
the  essential  characteristic  of  man,  the  same  word 
designating  both.  For  four  thousand  years  man  has 
been  called  "the  thinker."  For  consciousness,  will, 
memory,  the  Aryas  had  words  that  are  not  traceable 
to  material  symbols.  They  even  made  a  distinction, 
it  is  believed,  between  concrete  existence  and  abstract 

1  See  De  Coulanges,  La  CM  Antique,  B.  1.  ch.  t. 

2  Pictet,  Les  Aryas  Primitifs,  II.  237,  427,  435,  456. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS.  49 

being ; l  a  germ  of  that  intellectual  vigor  which  has 
made  the  Aryan  race  the  fathers  of  philosophy.  Their 
language  abounded  in  signs  of  imaginative  and  intui- 
tive processes.  They  believed  in  spirits,  good  and 
evil ; 2  and  their  medical  science  consisted  in  exor- 
cising the  latter  kind  by  means  of  herbs  and  magical 
formulas. 

There  are  no  signs  of  an  established  priesthood, 
nor  of  edifices  consecrated  to  deities.  But  terms 
relating  to  faith,  sacrifice,  and  adoration,  are  so 
abundant  as  to  prove  a  sincere  and  fervent  religious 
sentiment.  The  similarity  of  meaning  in  numerous 
words  descriptive  of  divine  forces  has  seemed  to  "  point 
to  a  primitive  monotheism,  more  or  less  vaguely  de- 
fined."3 Yet  the  Aryas  had  probably  developed  a 
rich  mythology  before  their  separation  into  different 
branches.4  They  had  also  firm  belief  in  immortality 
and  in  a  happy  heaven  for  those  who  should  deserve 
it,5  beholding  the  soul  pass  forth  at  death  as  a  shape 
of  air,  under  watchful  guardians,  to  its  upper  home. 
Some  of  these  inferences  of  linguistic  palaeontology 
may  require  further  evidence  to  give  them  scientific 
certainty.  But  there  are  other  features  in  the  picture 
of  Aryan  religious  life  which  admit  of  no  dispute. 
The  word  Div,  designating  at  once  the  clear  light 
of  the  sky,  and  whatsoever  spiritual  meanings  these 
simple  instincts  intimately  associated  therewith,  has 
endured  as  the  root-word  of  worship  for  the  whole 
Aryan  race :  in  all  its  branches  the  appellatives  of 
Deity  are  waves  of  this  primal  sound,  flowing  through 


1  Pictet,  II.  539-546,  749. 

2  Developed  afterwards  in  the  Yatus  and  Rakshasas  of  the  Veda,  and  in  correspondent 
evil  spirits  of  the  Avesta.     Pictet,  I.  633. 

s  Ibid.,  720,  690.  *  Ibid.,  689.  B  Ibid.,  748. 


50  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

all  its  manifold  and  changing  religions  with  the  serene 
transcendence  of  an  eternal  law. 

Again,  it  has  been  shown 1  that  the  whole  substance 
of  Greek  mythology  is  but  the  development,  with  ex- 
quisite poetic  feeling,  of  a  primitive  Aryan  stock  of 
names  and  legends,  recognizable  through  comparison 
with  the  Hymns  of  the  Hindu  Rig  Veda,  where  they 
are  found,  in  simpler  and  ruder  forms.  In  these  early 
yet  secondary  stages  of  their  development,  they  rep- 
resent the  daily  mystery  of  solar  movement,  the  swift 
passage  of  dawn  and  twilight,  the  conflict  of  day  with 
night,  of  sunshine  with  cloud,  of  drought  with  fertiliz- 
ing rain,  the  stealthy  path  of  the  breeze,  the  rising  of 
the  storm  wind,  the  wonder-working  of  the  elements, 
the  loss  of  all  visible  forms  at  night  only  to  return 
with  fresh  splendors  in  the  morning.  This  old  Aryan 
religion  of  intimacy  with  the  powers  of  air  and  sky 
has  in  fact  been  aptly  called  a  meteor olatry.  And 
recent  scholarship  has  applied  much  ingenuity  as  well 
as  insight,  in  bringing  all  Vedic  names  and  legends 
under  the  one  title  of  "solar  myths,"  using  the  word 
in  the  wide  descriptive  sense  just  indicated.  And 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  all  are  more  or  less 
intimately  related  to  natural  phenomena,  though  pro- 
ceeding primarily,  it  is  none  the  less  true,  from  moral 
and  spiritual  experiences  in  their  makers,  as  all 
mythology  must  do.  But  what  we  have  now  to 
observe  is  that  the  amount  of  this  mythologic  lore, 
inherited  by  both  the  Asiatic  and  European  branches 
of  the  Aryan  race,  warrants  our  ascribing  very  great 
productive    capacity,    both    aesthetic     and    religious, 

1  Especially  by  the  recent  researches  of  Muller.  See  Cox's  Manual  of  Mythology  for 
a  popular  summary  of  these.  Also  the  valuable  articles  of  Mr.  John  Fiske,  in  the  At- 
lantic Monthly  for  1871. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS.  5 1 

to  their  common  ancestors,  the  Bactrian  mountain 
tribes. 

And,  again,  names  and  traditions,  found  alike  in  the 
Indian  Veda  and  the  Iranian  Avesta,  indicate  that 
these  unknown  fathers  of  our  art,  science,  and  faith, 
must  have  venerated  a  mountain-plant,  and  used  its 
sap  as  a  symbol  of  life  renewed  through  sacrifice ; * 
that  they  believed  in  a  human  deliverer,  who,  after 
saving  men  from  destruction,  had  reorganized  their 
reviving  forces  for  social  growth  ; 2  in  a  human-divine 
guardian  of  the  world  beyond  this  life ; 3  and  in  a  true 
Aryan  hero  who  slew  the  serpent  of  physical  and 
moral  evil.4  And  so  we  learn  how  early  and  how 
cordial  was  man's  prophetic  sense  of  his  proper  unity 
with  the  Order  of  the  Universe,  the  ideal  which  it  is 
the  main  business  of  all  our  religion  and  science  to 
make  good. 

I  add  another  fact  of  equal  significance.  The 
thought  that  those  patient  domestic  animals,  which 
gave  milk,  and  bore  burdens,  and  were  in  other  ways 
indispensable  to  man,  deserved  a  better  lot  than  they 
were  apt  to  receive,  and  that  the  kind  treatment  of 
them  was  a  religious  duty,  is  common  to  both  the 
Aryan  races,  and  redounds  not  to  their  own  honor 
only,  but  to  that  of  their  common  progenitors,  from 
whom  it  must  have  descended.5 

Finally,  we  may  infer  from  the  testimony  of  the 

1  The  Soma  (Zend,  haotna),  or  Asdepias  acida.  The  haoma  was  perhaps  a  different 
plant,  yet  must  have  nearly  resembled  it. 

8  Yima  (Iran.)  and  Maim  (Ind.).  They  have  common  functions  as  mythical  beings, 
and  descend  alike  from  Vivaswat  (Zend,  Vivanghvat).     See  Lassen,  I.  517. 

8  Yama  (Ind.)  and  Vohumano  (Iran.)-  Schoebel  points  out  the  curious  transference  of 
functions  between  the  four  personages  just  mentioned,  in  consequence  of  the  separation 
of  the  Iranian  and  Iodian  branches  of  the  family. 

*  Trita  (Ind.)  and  Thraetona  (Iran.). 

6  Roth,  in  Zeitsckr.  d.  Detitsch.  Morg.  Gesellsck.,  XXV.  7. 


52  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

two  related  bibles  that  the  oldest  Aryas  found  God 
in  all  the  forms  and  functions  of  Fire ;  that  they  had 
great  faith  in  prayer,  as  intercourse  with  Deity  in 
purity  and  simplicity  of  trust ;  and  that  they  were 
endowed  with  qualities  that  help  to  explain  a  certain 
emphasis  on  sincerity  and  abhorrence  of  falsehood, 
equally  characteristic  of  the  precepts  of  these  old 
ethnic  scriptures,  and  of  the  reputation  of  the  early 
Persians  and  Hindus  among  the  Western  races  of 
antiquity. 

The  sacred  Fire,  kept  kindled  on  the  domestic  altar, 
as  the  centre  of  religious  sentiment  and  rite,  and  as 
consecrating  all  social,  civil,  and  political  relations,  is 
found  to  be  a  common  heritage  of  all  Aryan  races. 
Its  flame  ascended  from  every  household  hearth, 
watched  by  the  fti'lris,  or  fathers,  alive  and  dead,  of 
this  primitive  civilization.  Modern  scholars  have 
traced  its  profound  influence,  as  type  and  sacrament 
of  the  Family,  in  shaping  the  whole  religious  and 
municipal  life  of  ancient  Greece  and  Italy.1 

Not  only  are  the  words  we  now  use  to  designate 
domestic  relations  and  religious  beliefs  explained  by 
the  radicals  of  this  primitive  Aryan  tongue,  but  even 
our  terms  for  dwellings,  rivers,  mountains,  and  na- 
tions,2 are  in  like  manner  associated  with  these  patri- 
archal tribes.  So  much  are  we  at  home  among  the 
prehistoric  men.  The  largest  part  of  our  knowledge 
of  the  ancient  Aryas  has  been  reached  through  Lan- 
guage alone.  The  fleeting  words  of  a  people  have 
become  its  most  enduring  record  ! 

And  here  is  the  tribute  the  philologist  ends  by  ac- 

1  See  a  recent  remarkable  work  by  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  La  Cite  Antique  (Paris,  1870), 
in  which  this  special  subject  is  presented  for  the  first  time,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  in  all  its 
bearings,  and  with  great  clearness  and  force. 

3  See  Eichhoff,  Graittmaire  Indo-Europiene,  p   248,  252. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    ARYAS.  53 

cording  them  :  M  What  distinguishes  the  Aryan  race 
is  the  harmonious  balance  of  the  faculties.  It  was 
revealed  in  the  formation  of  their  language,  and  pre- 
sided at  the  opening  of  their  social  organization.  A 
happy  disposition,  in  which  energy  was  tempered  with 
mildness ;  a  lively  imagination,  and  strong  reasoning 
faculty  ;  a  spirit  open  to  impressions  of  beauty  ;  a  true 
sense  of  right ;  a  sound  morality  and  elevated  religious 
instincts,  —  united  to  give  them,  with  the  consciousness 
of  personal  value,  the  love  of  liberty  and  the  constant 
desire  of  progress."  * 

I  add  the  impressive  words  of  Renan :  "  When  the 
Aryan  race  shall  have  become  master  of  the  planet, 
its  first  duty  will  be  to  explore  the  mysterious  depths 
of  Bokhara  and  Little  Thibet,  where  so  much  that  is 
of  immense  value  to  science  probably  lies  concealed. 
How  much  light  must  be  thrown  on  the  origin  of 
language  when  we  shall  find  ourselves  in  presence  of 
the  localities  where  those  sounds  were  first  uttered 
which  we  still  employ,  and  where  those  intellectual 
categories  were  first  formed  which  guide  the  move- 
ment of  our  faculties  !  Let  us  never  forget  that  no 
amount  of  progress  can  enable  us  to  dispense  with  the 
verbal  and  grammatical  forms  spontaneously  chosen 
by  the  primeval  patriarchs  of  the  Imaus,  who  laid 
the  foundations  of  what  we  are  and  of  what  we 
shall  be."2 


»  Pictet,  II.  755. 

2  De  FOrigine  du  Langage,  p.  232. 


II. 

THE     HINDU    MIND. 


THE     HINDU    MIND. 


A     GREAT  civilization  is  a  collective  personality. 
-^■*-  Like  great  men,  whom  the  past  does  not  Racesatth 
account   for,   it  is    a  mystery  of  genius    and  dawn  of 
spiritual  gravitation. 

We  can  report  the  conditions  of  its  development. 
We  can  trace  climatic  and  historical  influences  that 
have  educated  it.  Behind  these  we  note  determinative 
qualities  of  race,  which,  while  constantly  modified  by 
such  external  forces,  are  yet  inexplicable  by  them. 
The  word  "  race,"  moreover,  is  used  quite  indefinitely, 
and,  like  "  species,"  serves  but  to  prove  the  limitations 
of  our  science.  It  is  applied  to  kinds  of  relation 
widely  differing  not  in  breadth  only,  but  in  origin  and 
substantial  meaning.  Thus  the  term  "  Aryan "  or 
"  Semitic "  marks  a  class  of  unities  wholly  distinct 
from  that  designated  by  such  terms  as  "  Teutonic  "  and 
"  Hebrew ; "  and  these  again  differ  to  an  equal 
extent  from  that  kind  of  unity  which  would  constitute 
races  as  American,  African,  or  Polynesian. 

But,  in  whatever  sense  conceived,  races  are  frag- 
mentary ;  and  the  growth  of  civilization  is  dependent 
on  their  fusion.  However  we  may  decide  the  question 
of  their  origin,  it  is  certain  that,  when  we  mark  their 
first  appearance  in  history,  it  is  their  incompleteness 


58  RELIGION   AND   LIFE. 

that  most  impresses  us.  This  embryological  phase, 
it  is  true,  combines  the  just  apparent  germs  of  those 
forces  which  subsequent  stages  of  growth  must  differ- 
entiate and  develop.  Yet,  while  each  race  is  thus  en- 
dowed with  all  properly  human  elements,  it  manifests 
some  one  of  them  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  rest. 
The  very  exaggeration,  however,  is  both  present  vigor 
and  prospect  of  reaction.  The  law  of  progress  must 
at  last  bring  out  all  the  diverse  energies  of  races,  and 
blend  them  in  due  proportion,  in  the  nobler  humanity 
that  is  yet  to  come. 

The  Oriental  races  in  antiquity,  though  by  no  means 
The  Special  without  mutual  intercourse,  did  not  attain  real 
Types.  fusion.  Owing  to  peculiar  circumstances,  cli- 
matic and  other,  they  have  not  yet  attained  it.  They 
are  still  isolated  columns,  awaiting  their  place  in  that 
universal  temple  of  religion,  politics,  and  culture,  which 
our  widest  experience  is  as  yet  inadequate  to  design. 

I  venture  to  borrow  from  the  physical  world  an 
illustration,  which  may  serve  to  indicate  the  general 
result  of  their  ethnological  qualities.  It  is,  I  need 
hardly  say,  symbolical  merely,  and  not  to  be  taken 
either  in  a  materialistic  sense,  or  as  defining  impassa- 
ble limits  of  race  capacity. 

The  Hindu  mind  is  subtle,  introversive,  contempla- 
tive. It  spins  its  ideals  out  of  its  brain  substance,  and 
may  properly  be  called  cerebral.  The  Chinese  —  busy 
with  plodding,  uninspired  labor,  dealing  with  pure 
ideas  to  but  little  result,  yet  wonderfully  efficient  in 
the  world  of  concrete  facts  and  uses  —  may  be  defined 
as  muscular.  And  the  Persian,  made  for  mediating 
between  thought  and  work,  apt  alike  at  turning  specu- 
lation into  practice,  and  raising  practice  to  fresh 
speculation,  so  leading  out  of  the  ancient  form  of  civil- 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  59 

ization  into  the  modern,  no  less  plainly  indicates  a 
nervous  type. 

We  observe  therefore  that  in  the  dawn  of  history, 
and  more  or  less  through  its  later  periods  in  the  East, 
the  brain  was  dreaming  here,  while  hands  were  drudg- 
ing there;  and  yet  again,  elsewhere,  the  swift  nerve, 
made  to  ply  between  brain  and  hand,  was  unduly  pre- 
ponderant over  both.  Here  are  great  disadvantages 
for  the  growth  of  ethical  and  spiritual  capacity,  the 
natural  bloom  of  due  proportion  and  right  under- 
standing between  the  faculties.  So  that  it  would  be 
not  a  little  encouraging  to  us  as  students  of  universal 
religion,  and  lovers  of  its  progress  and  its  promise, 
if  these  imperfect  societies  should  reveal  even  germs, 
which  familiar  appliances  might  seem  competent  to 
expand  into  noble  forms  of  thought  and  desire. 
Better  still,  if  these  forms  themselves  are  found  to 
have  spontaneously  arisen  in  such  races,  in  despite  of 
the  adverse  conditions. 

Our  first  study  is  of  the  Hindu.  I  have  called  the 
mind  of  this  race,  or  more  properly  of  the  The  Hindu 
Aryan  portion  of  the  population  of  India,  the  Mmd- 
Brain  of  the  East,  isolated  from  muscle  and  nerve. 
By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  either  of  the  latter  elements 
was  absent.  On  the  contrary,  many  of  the  tribes  into 
which  these  Aryan  Hindus  were  divided,  —  and  the 
semi-Aryan,  mountain  tribes  generally,  —  have  shown 
very  decided  military  tendencies ;  while  the  race,  as  a 
whole,  is  agricultural,  and  nowise  wanting  in  industry 
or  perseverance,  as  their  development  of  the  physical 
resources  of  the  country  and  the  wonders  of  their 
architecture  amply  prove.1 

Nevertheless,  the  contemplative  faculty  seems  com- 

1  See  illustrations  in  Craufiird's  A  ncienl  and  Modern  India,  ch.  x. 


60  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

petent  to  the  control  of  these  and  all  other  tendencies, 
shaping  them  in  the  long  run  to  speculative  rather  than 
material  or  practical  results.  The  most  impressive 
works  of  Hindu  genius  are  modes  of  celebrating  the 
power  of  meditation.  The  Rig  Veda  sings  of  the 
"  deep  sea  of  mind."  And  it  has  been  finely  said  that 
the  name,  "Father  of  gods  and  men,"  which  the  Greeks 
loved  to  give  to  the  ocean,  would  well  apply  to  India, 
that  immeasurable  sea  of  dogmas  and  beliefs.1 

The  latest  philosophical  and  religious  systems  lay 
Productiv-  prefigured  in  the  depths  of  this  Hindu  Brain. 
,ty-  It  exhausted  most  forms  of  devotional  mysti- 

cism and  subtle  speculation.  In  these  spheres  "it  left 
its  pupils  little  to  learn  from  Zeno  or  Aristotle,  or  the 
controversies  of  later  theology."  It  created  one  of 
the  most  artistic  languages,  and  one  of  the  richest 
literatures,  in  the  world.  It  compiled  elaborate  Law 
Codes  in  great  numbers,  and,  besides  its  voluminous 
Bibles,  gathered  immense  treasures  of  sacred  lore, 
ritual,  philosophical,  devotional.  Its  poetic  produc- 
tivity was  prodigious.  Its  great  epics,  the  Ramayana 
and  Mahabharata,  containing  the  one  50,000,  the 
other  200,000  lines,  glow  with  a  luxuriance  of  imag- 
ery which  contrasts  with  the  Iliad  or  ^Eneid  as  the 
stupendous  vegetation  of  India  differs  from  that  of 
Italy  or  Greece.  All  that  this  colossal  people  have 
dreamed  or  done,  in  philosophy,  mythology,  ethics, 
in  imaginative  or  didactic  thought,  is  here  transmuted 
into  song.  The  Hindu  alone  has  made  his  whole  life 
and  experience  an  epic.  These  two  great  accretions 
of  rhythmic  lore  represent  a  constant  necessity  for 
such  expression  in   all   ages  of   Hindu  history.      In 

1  Ballanchey  quoted  in  Laprade's  Sentiment  de  la  Nature  avant  le  Christianisme, 
p.  115. 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  6 1 

their  main  substance  they  go  back  as  far  as  the  fourth 
or  fifth  century  before  our  era.  Many  of  their  legends 
may  be  referred  to  a  much  earlier  period.  And,  while 
their  relations  to  each  other  are  not  very  clearly  settled, 
this  at  least  is  certain,  — that  in  both  have  been  worked 
over  very  ancient  Vedic  myths  from  age  to  age,  in  the 
interest  of  fresh  experiences,  all  taken  up,  as  they 
came,  into  this  epical  transfiguration.  Such  the  cre- 
ative imagination  of  the  race.1 

Yet  it  could  never  organize  itself  into  one  united 
nation.     From  the  beginning  this  vast  penin- 

i  £  11  Disunity. 

sula,  one-third  as  large  as  Europe,  has  been 
divided  among  a  multitude  of  distinct  tribes.  The  little 
kingdoms  warred  with  each  other ;  and  now  and  then 
some  greater  chief  would  master  his  neighbors  on  every 
side,  and  build  up  some  brilliant  dynasty,  like  the 
Maurya  or  the  Gupta,  or  in  later  times  the  Mahratta, 
and  perhaps  organize  a  wide  movement  for  Hindu  in- 
dependence :  all  of  which  would  last  a  little  while,  and 
then  disappear,  like  cirrus  streamers  in  the  blue  deeps 
of  the  Indian  sky,  or  fleeting  thoughts  in  the  heaven  of 
Hindu  dreams.  It  was  the  mutual  jealousy  and  strife 
of  the  Hindu  kings,  not  the  lack  of  military  spirit 
nor  of  military  resources,  that  made  this  great  people 
a  prey  to  the  invading  Moslem  from  the  eleventh  to 
the  fourteenth  centuries  of  our  era.  A  glut  of  food 
in  one  English  province  of  India  has  often  occurred 
at  the  same  time  with  a  famine  in  an  adjoining  one ;' 
yet  the  intercourse  between  them  has  been  insufficient 
to  make  the  abundance  of  the  one  supply  the  lack  of 

1  The  Ramayana  has  been  translated  into  Italian  by  Gorresio,  and  into  French  by 
Fauche.  Monier  Williams  has  given  a  careful  abstract  of  it,  as  also  of  the  Mahabharata, 
in  his  admirable  little  volume  on  Indian  Epic  Poetry,  and  a  new  English  rhymed  version 
by  Griffith  is  in  course  of  publication.  Many  of  the  finest  episodes  in  both  poems  will  be 
found  translated  in  Jolowicz's  OrientalUche  Poesie- 


62  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

the  other.1  There  are  at  this  very  day,  it  is  estimated,2 
twenty-one  distinct  nations  in  India,  each  of  which 
possesses  a  language  in  many  respects  peculiar  to 
itself.  "Villages  lie  side  by  side  for  a  thousand  years, 
without  any  considerable  intermixture  of  these  distinct 
tongues."  Hindustani  in  the  north  of  India  and  Ta- 
mil in  the  south,  represent,  generally,  the  difference 
between  the  two  great  classes  of  languages  derived 
respectively  from  the  A^an  and  the  indigenous,  per- 
haps Negrito,  perhaps  Turanic,  tribes.  But,  how- 
ever widely  diffused,  these  two  types  but  feebly  express 
the  diversities  of  speech  which  render  the  writings  of 
Hindustani  schools  in  Bombay  unintelligible  to  races 
in  the  north-west  of  India,  and  make  it  more  easy  for 
an  educated  native  of  that  city  to  hold  intercourse  with 
one  from  Bengal  or  Madras  in  English  than  in  any 
other  tongue.3 

The  earlier  Hindus  had  well-organized  governments, 
much  lauded  by  the  Greek  writers,  to  whom 

Political  J  .  . 

organiza-  we  owe  our  earliest  reliable  notices  of  India, 
tlon'  for  the  wise  and  thoughtful  manner  in  which 
the  interests  of  trade  and  agriculture  were  protected, 
the  wants  of  strangers,  as  of  the  sick  and  needy, 
supplied,  and  the  defence  of  the  state  secured.4  The 
law-books  contain  minute  regulations  for  freights  and 
markets,  and  just  rules  for  partnerships  and  organiza- 
tions in  trade,  for  testing  weights,  measures,  and 
money,  and  punishing  dishonest  dealing.5  And  the 
organization  of  the  village  communities   throughout 

1  Westminster  Review,  July,  1859. 

2  Mackay's  Reports  on  Western  India,  p.  29. 

3  Perry  on  the  Distribution  of  the  Languages  of  India,  Journal  of  Roy.  Asiatic  Soc. 
(Bombay  branch),  for  January,  1853. 

*  See  especially  Megasthenes,  in  Strabo,  De  Situ  Orbis,  B.  xv. 
B  See  Lassen,  in  Ztschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.  (1862). 


THE    HINDU   MIND.  63 

Northern  India,  from  very  early  times,  was  an  elaborate 
system  of  local  self-government,  that  showed  how 
large  an  amount  of  personal  and  social  freedom  could 
be  maintained,  even  under  the  depressing  shadow  of 
caste.  But  these  steps  in  political  science  never  led 
onwards  to  unity  and  nationality,  nor  to  any  form 
of  constructive  policy  on  a  large  scale,  or  for  a  com- 
mon end. 

India  has  at  all  times  been  famous  for  its  domes- 
tic and  foreign  trade.  In  the  early  days  of  Foreign 
the  Roman  Empire,  it  was  a  great  commer-  Relations- 
cial  centre  for  the  merchants  of  Italy  and  Egypt,  as  it 
was  at  a  much  earlier  period  for  all  Asiatic  races, 
from  Phcenicia  in  the  West  to  China  in  the  East.  The 
oldest  codes  record  a  very  advanced  system  of  com- 
mercial exchanges  among  the  Hindu  tribes,  regulated 
by  wise  and  just  provisions ;  and  a  high  respect  for 
trade  is  shown  by  the  permission  granted  the  Brah- 
mans,  in  violation  of  caste,  to  earn  their  support  by 
assuming  the  functions  of  the  Vaisya,  or  mercantile 
class.1  In  more  than  one  epoch,  the  resources  of 
India,  natural  and  industrial  as  well  as  intellectual, 
have  made  the  wealth  of  great  empires.2  Its  delicate 
tissues,  its  marvellous  colors  and  dyes,  its  porcelains, 
its  work  in  metals  and  precious  stones,  its  dainty 
essences  and  perfumes,  have  not  only  been  the  wonder 
and  delight  of  Europe,  but  in  no  slight  degree  helped 
in  the  revival  of  art.  But,  after  all,  the  Hindus  have 
shown  little  practical  enterprise,  and  there  was  a  certain 
passive  quality  in  their  best  performance ;  even  in  that 
fine  manipulation  that  wove  gossamer  fabrics,  and 
wrought  the  precious  metals  with  such  eminent  suc- 

1  Manu,  X.  83  ;  Y&jnavalkya,  III. ;  Lassen,  Ind-  Alt.,  II.  572-576. 

2  See  Craufurd,  A  ncient  and  Modern  India,  ch.  xiii. 


64  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

cess.  It  has  been  believed  that  they  could  have  taken 
little  pains  to  export  these  products,  since  the  sailor 
was  held  in  slight  respect  by  their  laws ;  that  most  of 
their  trade  was  carried  in  foreign  bottoms ;  and  that 
the  Mohammedans  first  introduced  coinage  among 
them,  their  only  previous  currency  being  shells.1  We 
read  indeed  of  wealthy  merchants  in  their  dramatic 
works,  and  traces  of  their  mercantile  establishments 
are  found  far  to  the  east  and  west  of  India.  Yet,  on 
the  whole,  it  is  probable  that  other  nations  had  to 
come  to  them.  They  have  always  been  mainly  an 
agricultural  people,  the  whole  population  averaging 
only  about  one  hundred  to  the  square  mile.  Their 
scholars  did  not  travel.  Only  a  great  religious  and 
moral  inspiration,  like  Buddhism,  could  rouse  Hindu 
thought  to  seek  geographical  expansion.  Only  here 
and  there  we  find  traces  of  embassies ;  and  these, 
mainly  for  political  objects,  to  the  courts  of  China, 
Rome,  and  Egypt.  Yet  the  intellectual  life  of  India 
was  profoundly  felt  throughout  the  ancient  world. 
Greece,  Persia,  Egypt  even,  went  to  sit  at  the  feet  of 
these  serene  dreamers  on  the  Indus  and  under  the 
banyan  shades,  from  the  time  of  Alexander  down- 
wards ;  and  there  they  marvelled  at  the  power  of  phi- 
losophy to  achieve  ideal  virtue.  And  what  treasures 
of  European  fable,  legend,  and  mythic  drama  further 
testify  to  the  extent  of  our  indebtedness  to  India  in 
the  sphere  of  imagination  and  fancy,  down  to  the 
magic  mirror,  the  golden  egg,  the  purse  of  Fortuna- 
tus,  the  cap  of  invisibility ! 

The  Hindus  reasoned  of  war  itself  as  if  it  were  a 
Sciences,    flash  out  of  the  brain,  a  piece  of  metaphysics.2 

1  Journal  Roy.  As-  Soc.  of  Bengal  (Philolog.,  1867). 
1  See  the  Bhagavadgita. 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  65 

They  loved  to  press  beyond  material  successions  or  con- 
ditions to  general  forms  and  essential  processes  ;  pur- 
suing with  special  success  those  studies  that  afford  the 
largest  field  for  abstraction  and  contemplation, — the 
orderly  movement  of  the  stars,  the  laws  of  numbers, 
the  structure  of  language,  the  processes  of  thought. 
They  made  much  progress  in  analytic  arithmetic,  and 
not  only  applied  algebra  to  astronomy  and  geometry, 
but  geometry  to  the  demonstration  of  algebraic  rules.1 
They  seem  to  have  invented  numerical  signs  and 
the  decimal  system  ;  the  zero  itself  being  of  Sanskrit 
descent,  and  the  old  Hindu  figures  being  still  clearly 
traceable  in  those  of  the  later  Arabic  digits.  The 
introduction  of  these  numerical  signs  in  place  of 
the  alphabetic  characters  before  used  by  all  other 
nations  of  antiquity  —  a  change  ascribed  by  old  writers 
to  the  Pythagoreans,  those  Orientalists  of  the  Greek 
world,  but  probably  an  importation  from  India  through 
the  Arabians  of  Bagdad  —  was  the  finest  ideal  im- 
pulse ever  given  to  arithmetical  studies.  The  decimal 
system  was  developed  in  India  as  a  speculative  cal- 
culus so  earnestly,  that  special  names  were  given  to 
every  power  in  an  ascending  scale  of  enormous  reach. 
The  fifty-third  power  of  ten  was  taken  as  a  unit,  and 
on  this  new  base  another  scale  of  numbers  rose  till  a 
figure  was  reached  consisting  of  unity  followed  by 
four  hundred  and  twenty-one  zeros.  And  these  ele- 
ments were  applied  to  the  solution  of  ideal  problems, 
such  as  "  the  number  of  atoms  containable  in  the 
limits  of  the  world  taken  as  a  fixed  dimension ; " 
representing  mathematical  reality  none  the  less  for 
being    so    utterly   past   conception.2      The    Arabians 

1  Colebrooke,  Hindu  Algebra^  Introd.,  pp.  xiv.,  xv. 

2  Woepcke.,  Mem.  sur  Us  Chiffres  Indiens,  in  Journal  Asiatique  (1S63). 

5 


66  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

called  the  Indian  arithmetic  the  "  sandgrain  calcu- 
lus." Eighteen  centuries  ago  at  least,  the  Hindus  had 
elaborate  systems  of  arithmetical  mnemonics,  based 
on  numerical  values  attached  to  letters  of  the  alpha- 
bet.1 "  They  reached  a  stage  of  algebraic  science,"  says 
Weber,  "  which  was  not  arrived  at  in  Europe  till  the 
close  of  the  last  century  ;  and,  if  their  writings  had  been 
known  a  century  earlier,  they  would  certainly  have 
created  a  new  epoch."2  Aryabhatta,  their  greatest 
astronomer  and  mathematician,  in  the  fourth  century 
determined  very  closely  the  relation  of  the  diameter 
of  a  circle  to  the  circumference,  and  applied  it  to  the 
measurement  of  the  earth.3  They  invented  methods 
also  for  solving  equations  of  a  high  degree. 

In  the  time  of  Alexander  they  had  geographical 
charts ;  and  their  physicians  were  skilful  enough  to 
win  the  admiration  of  the  Greeks.  Their  investiga- 
tions in  medicine  have  been  of  respectable  amount 
and  value,  lending  much  aid  to  the  Arabians,  the  fa- 
thers of  European  medical  science,  especially  in  the 
study  of  the  qualities  of  minerals  and  plants.4  In 
much  of  their  astronomy  they  anticipated  the  Arabi- 
ans ;  their  old  Siddhantas,  or  systematic  treatises  on  the 
subject,  indicating  a  long  period  of  previous  familiar- 
ity with  scientific  problems.  And  in  such  honor  did 
they  hold  this  science  that  they  ascribed  its  origin  to 
Brahma.  They  made  Sarasvati,  their  goddess  of  num- 
bers, the  parent  of  nearly  a  hundred  children,  who 
were  at  once  musical  modes  and  celestial  cycles.5 
They  gave  names  to  the  great  constellations,  and 
noted  the  motions  of  heavenly  bodies  three  thousand 

1  Lassen,  II.  1140.  *  Weber,  Vorhsungen,  p.  238. 

2  Lecture  on  India-  B  Creuzer,  Relig.  de  VAntiq.,  p.  261. 
8  Lassen,  II.  1138-1146. 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  67 

years  ago.  The  Greeks  appear  to  have  derived  much 
aid  from  their  observations  of  eclipses,  as  well  as  to 
have  been  in  some  astronomical  matters  their  teach- 
ers. Lassen  mentions  the  names  of  thirteen  astron- 
omers distinguished  in  their  annals.  A  Siddhanta 
declares  that  the  earth  is  round,  and  stands  unsupported 
in  space.  The  myth  of  successive  foundations,  such 
as  the  elephant  under  the  tortoise,  is  rejected  for  good 
and  sufficient  reasons  in  one  of  these  works,  as  in- 
volving the  absurdity  of  an  endless  series.  "If  the 
last  term  of  the  series  is  supposed  to  remain  firm  by 
its  inherent  power,  why  may  not  the  same  power  be 
supposed  to  reside  in  the  first,  that  is  in  the  earth 
itself  ?  " 1 

Aryabhatta  appears  to  have  reached  by  independ- 
ent observations  the  knowledge  of  the  earth's  move- 
ment  on  its  axis  ; 2  and  to  have  availed  himself  of  the 
science  of  his  time  in  calculating  the  precession  of 
the  equinoxes  and  the  length  of  the  orbital  times  of 
planets.3 

Especially  attractive  to  Hindu  genius  were  Grammar 
and  Philosophy.     They  alone  among  nations 

•  *  1       1  •  ill-  Grammar. 

have  paid  honors  to  grammarians,  holding 
them  for  divine  souls,  and  crowning  them  with  mythical 
glories.  Panini  in  the  fourth  century  B.C.  actually  com- 
posed four  thousand  sutras,  or  sections,  in  eight  books, 
of  grammatical  science,  in  which  an  adequate  termi- 
nology may  be  found  for  all  the  phenomena  of  speech.4 

1  Siddh&nta  Siroinani,  quoted  by  Muir,  IV.  97. 

2  Colebrooke  (Essay  II.)  quotes  his  words:  "The  starry  firmament  is  fixed:  it  is  the 
earth  which,  continually  revolving,  produces  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  constellations." 

s  See  Lassen,  II.  1143-1146.  Also,  Craufurd,  Ancient  and  Modern  India,  ch.  viii. 
The  views  of  Lassen  and  Weber  as  to  the  origin  and  age  of  Hindu  astronomy  are  criticised 
by  Whitney,  whose  opinions  are  entitled  to  very  high  respect.  These  criticisms,  however, 
do  not  affect  the  substance  of  what  is  here  stated. 

*  Lassen,  II.  479. 


68  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

His  works  have  been  the  centre  of  an  immense  litera- 
ture of  commentation,  surpassed  in  this  respect  by 
the  Vedas  alone.  No  people  of  antiquity  investigated 
so  fully  the  laws  of  euphony,  of  the  composition  and 
derivation  of  words.  "It  is  only  in  our  own  century, 
and  incited  by  them,"  says  Weber,  "that  our  Bopp, 
Humboldt,  and  Grimm  have  advanced  far  beyond 
them."1  The  Hindu  Grammar  is  the  oldest  in  the 
world.  The  Nirukta  of  Yaska  belongs  probably  to 
the  seventh  century  B.C.,  and  quotes  older  writings 
on  the  same  subject.2  In  whatsoever  concerns  the 
study  of  words  and  forms  of  thought,  the  Hindus  have 
always  been  at  home ;  anticipating  the  Greeks,  and 
accomplishing  more  at  the  outset  of  their  career  than 
the  Semitic  race  did  in  two  thousand  years. 

Yet  not  more  than  the  Semites  are  they  inclined  to 
pure  history.  There  are,  it  should  seem,  no 
reliable  Hindu  annalists.  The  only  sources  of 
important  historical  information  are  the  records  of  royal 
endowments  and  public  works  preserved  in  the  temples, 
and  the  inscriptions  on  monuments  and  on  coins,  fortu- 
nately discovered  in  large  numbers,  and  covering  many 
periods  otherwise  wholly  unknown.  The  scattered 
Brahmanical  Chronicles  of  several  kingdoms  are  but 
dynastic  lists  and  meagre  allusions.  The  Buddhists, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  made  a  really  serious  study 
of  history,  though  even  they  have  not  had  enough  of 
the  critical  faculty  to  distinguish  fact  from  legend.  It 
is  only  by  careful  study,  and  comparison  with  Greek, 
Chinese,  and  other  testimony,  that  their  voluminous 
records  can  be  made  to  yield  the  very  great  wealth  of 
historical  truth  they  really  contain.     There  are  in  fact 

1  Lecture  on  India  (Berlin,  1854),  p.  28. 
*  Renan,  Langues  Simitiquesy  365. 


THE    HINDU    MIND. 


69 


only  two  general  histories  of  India  from  native  sources  ; 
one  quite  recent,  and  the  other  dating  from  the  four- 
teenth century.  A  most  valuable  Indian  chronicle  is, 
however,  the  Buddhist  Mahavansa,  which  gives  a 
more  complete  and  trustworthy  account  of  Ceylon, 
reaching  from  the  earliest  times  down  to  the  last 
century,  than  we  possess  of  any  other  Oriental  State 
except  China.1  For  determining  chronology,  there 
are  as  yet  few  landmarks ;  both  Brahmans  and  Budd- 
hists making  free  use  of  sacred  and  mystic  numbers, 
with  whose  multiples  they  strive  to  express  a  haunting 
sense  of  interminable  space  and  time.  But  though 
the  mythology  of  the  latter  deals  in  extravagances 
beyond  all  parallel,  they  far  surpass  the  Brahmans  in 
serious  historical  purpose,  in  observation  of  human 
affairs,  and  in  the  taste  for  recording  actual  events.2 
Their  earliest  Sutras  are  of  great  value  in  the  inves- 
tigation of  an  epoch  of  which  we  have  scarcely 
any  other  record.  This  superiority  as  chroniclers 
is  due  in  part  to  their  freedom  from  caste  ;  a  system 
whose  theoretic  immobility  and  practical  lack  of  motive, 
either  for  the  backward  or  the  forward  look,  forbid  the 
growth  of  a  historic  sense.  They  differ  from  the  Brah- 
mans also  in  a  deeper  interest  in  the  human  for  its  own 
sake.  A  philosophy  which  wholly  absorbs  man  in  Deity 
cannot  allow  that  independent  value  to  the  details  of 
life,  the  recognition  of  which  is  an  indispensable  condi- 
tion of  historical  study.  How  to  escape  the  flow  of 
transient  events,  and  know  only  the  Eternal  One,  was 
the  Brahmanical  problem ;  and  it  would  seem  quite 
incompatible  with  even  observing  the  details  of  posi- 

1  Lassen,  II.  13,  16. 

2  Of  the  services  of  Buddhist  literature  to  the  geographical  and  historical  study  of 
India,  see  a  just  recognition  in  St.  Martin's  Geographie  du  Veda  (Introd.),  Paris,  1S60. 


yO  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

tive  fact,  not  to  speak  of  tracing  the  chain  of  finite 
causes  and  effects.  It  is  only  remarkable  that  the 
Brahmans  should  have  shown  any  capacity  whatever 
in  this  direction.  Especial  notice  is  therefore  due  to 
the  opinion  of  a  thoroughly  competent  scholar  that 
they  have  not  indulged  in  conscious  invention,  and 
the  falsification  of  facts,  to  such  extent  as  would 
justify  European  writers  in  casting  stones  at  them  on 
this  account.1 

The  historic  sense  is  indeed  by  no  means  wanting, 
at  least  in  certain  directions.  We  are  told  that,  in 
every  village  of  the  Panjab,  the  bard,  who  fills  in 
India  the  place  which  in  Europe  is  taken  by  the 
"Herald's  Office,"  can  give  the  name  of  every  pro- 
prietor who  has  held  land  therein  since  its  foundation, 
many  hundreds  of  years  ago,  and  that  the  correctness 
of  these  records  is  capable  of  demonstration.2  It 
would,  in  fact,  be  far  from  becoming,  in  the  present 
state  of  Sanskrit  studies,  to  deny  that  the  Hindus  have 
ever  written  genuine  history..  The  destructive  effect 
of  the  climate  of  India  on  written  documents  is  of 
itself  a  discouragement  to  literary  pursuits,  and  to  the 
preservation  of  records. 

Yet  we  cannot  overlook  their  natural  propensity  to 
reluct  at  limitation  by  positive  facts,  and  to  the 

Force  of  the  .  J    z  .  ..  „,   . 

conteinpia-  objective  authority  of  details.  1  his  was  not 
tive  element,  owing5  as  jn  a  great  degree  with  the  Semites, 
to  intensity  of  passion  and  the  worship  of  auto- 
cratic caprice,  but  to  a  stronger  attraction  towa?'ds 
■pare  thought.  Whatever  they  may  have  accomplished 
in  astronomy  and  medicine,  an  ideal  generalization 
was  always  easier  to   them    than  observation.      The 

1  Lassen,  II.  7.  2  Griffin's  Rajahs  of  the  Punjab,  p.  494- 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  71 

Hindu  has,  after  all,  effected  little  in  the  purely  prac- 
tical sciences ;  almost  as  little  as  the  Hebrew  did  in 
ancient  times,  and  in*  his  distinctively  Semitic  capac- 
ity. But  while  the  Hebrew  failed  here  by  reason  of 
his  defective  appreciation  of  natural  laws,  and  his 
appetite  for  miracle  and  sign,  the  Hindu,  belonging 
to  a  family  in  which  the  scientific  faculty  is  supreme, 
failed  for  a  different  reason;  namely,  his  excessive 
love  of  abstraction  and  contemplation.  This  enfee- 
bled the  sense  of  real  limits.  His  imagination  spurned 
the  paths  of  relation  and  use.  It  dissolved  life  into 
intellectual  nebula,  and  then  tried  to  create  the  worlds 
anew,  weaving  ideal  shapes  and  movements  in  phan- 
tasmal flow,  out  of  this  star-dust  of  thought. 

Its  boundless  desire  to  bring  the  universe  under  one 
conception,  and  make  it  flow  forever  from  Mind  as  the 
perfect  unity  and  sole  reality,  by  contemplative  disci- 
plines alone,  —  though  one-sided  and  ill-balanced,  was 
yet  a  magnificent  aspiration  in  days  when  practical 
and  social  wisdom  was  in  its  infancy.  Limit,  the  true 
balance  of  ideal  and  actual,  fate  and  freedom,  divine 
and  human,  — limit,  which  is  not  limitation,  but  har- 
mony and  order  and  justice  of  the  parts  to  the  whole, 
—  this,  the  inspiration  of  Greek  genius,  the  Hindu 
did  not  know.  Compare  his  art  with  the  Egyptian  and 
the  Greek.  Egyptian  sculpture  is  a  plain  prose  record 
of  actual  life ;  or  else  it  binds  the  idea  within  fixed 
types,  which  are  conventional,  and,  though  often 
grandly  serene,  everywhere  mechanically  repeated 
and  allegorically  defined.  Greek  sculpture  demon- 
strates the  capacity  of  the  Human  Form  for  every 
aesthetic  purpose,  embodying  divine  ideas  therein 
with  pure  content  and  noble  freedom.  Here  CEdipus 
has  solved  the  riddle,  and  pronounced  the  answer, — 


72  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

Man.  But  in  Hindu  Art  you  see  mythological  fancy 
overpowering  real  life ;  and,  instead  of  the  actual 
human  form,  a  boundless  exaggeration  and  reduplica- 
tion of  its  parts,  a  deluge  of  symbolic  figures,  gathered 
from  every  quarter  and  heaped  in  endless  and  stupen- 
dous combinations,  the  negation  of  limit  and  of  law.1 
Every  thing  here  is  colossal.  This  aspiration  to 
enfold  the  Whole  cannot  find  images  vast  enough  to 
satisfy  its  purpose.  It  excavates  mountains,  piling 
chambers  upon  chambers  through  their  depths,  for 
mile  after  mile  of  space.2  It  carves  them  into  mon- 
strous monolithic  statues  of  animals  and  gods.  It 
brings  the  elephant  to  uphold  its  columns,  and  stretches 
their  shafts  along  the  heavy  vaults  of  Ellora  and  Karli, 
like  the  interminable  spread  of  the  banyan  trunks  in 
its  tropical  forests.  Its  temples  represent  the  universe 
itself;  gathering  all  elements  and  forms  around  cen- 
tral deity,  yet  seldom  pausing  to  bring  out  of  these 
forms  the  artistic  beauty  of  which  they  are  individ- 
ually capable.  Intellectual  abstraction  —  as  of  mind 
fascinated  by  the  vague  sense  of  cosmic  wholeness, 
and  not  ye't  definitely  constructive  —  excluded  Art, 
except  in  the  one  grand,  all-enfolding  form  of  Archi- 
tecture. And  here  sculpture  is  involved  ;  yet  not  as 
with  the  Greek,  in  separate  freedom,  but  adherent  to 
the  whole  edifice,  and  absorbed  in  it,  save  in  the 
instances  of  a  few  special  forms  of  statuary. 

The  contemplative  element  did  not  fail  at  last  to 
itssignifi-  engulf  outward  forms,  and  even  human  per- 
cance.         sonality,  to  an  extent  elsewhere  unparalleled. 


1  See  Kugler's  Kunstgeschichte,  p.  121  ;  Renan  in  Nott's  Indigenous  Races,  p.  103  ; 
Ramee,  Hist-  de  V Architecture,  vol.  i. 

2  There  are  forty  series  of  caves  in  Western  India;  and  at  Ellora   the  architecture 
extends  more  than  two  miles. 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  73 

But  we  should  say  that  these  facts  had  not  yet  reached 
their  real  values  for  the  mind,  rather  than  that  the 
values  themselves  were  denied.  At  the  least  we  are 
allured  by  the  sense  of  an  immeasurable  scope  in 
these  mystical  aspirations  to  unity  with  God,  which 
bears  witness  of  genuine  intuition.  Here  abides  an 
illimitable  Whole,  instead  of  the  manifold  symbols  of 
special  faith,  that  have  come  to  stand  out,  for  our 
sharper  Western  understanding,  in  mutually  exclusive 
and  even  hostile  attitudes,  plainly  enough  needing  to 
recognize  some  higher  unity,  even  though  it  were  by 
suggestion  0f  t]ie  Hindu  dream. 

To  appreciate  the  results  of  these  contemplative 
tendencies,  we  must  recall  the  old  Aryan  worship  of 
the  clear  Light  of  Day.  It  seems  to  have  given 
place,  in  the  development  of  Hindu  thought,  to  its 
exact  opposite,  of  which  the  gloom  of  the  Forest  and 
the  Cave  would  be  a  truer  symbol.  But  it  is  in  fact 
not  lost.  It  is  transformed  into  an  inward  representa- 
tive and  analogue,  becoming  a  worship  of  the  serener 
Light  of  Meditation.  It  is  this  divinity,  which  with 
full  confidence  in  its  power  to  pass  through  and  dis- 
solve all  possible  barriers,  is  here  invoked  to  illumine 
mystic  depths,  whether  of  matter  or  mind,  which  the 
outward  sunlight  cannot  pierce.  This  aspect  of  Hin- 
duism must  not  be  forgotten,  when,  in  order  to  see 
its  true  embodiment,  we  endeavor  to  picture  to  our- 
selves those  sunless  caves  of  Ellora  and  Elephanta ; 
where  columns  and  symbolic  statues  loom  dim  and 
colossal  through  a  silent  abyss,  and  only  the  mystical 
imagination  finds  play,  losing  itself  in  its  own  hover- 
ing phantoms ;  those  deeps  where  all  shape  is  spell- 
bound, and  all  action  dream ;  where  puny,  awe-struck 
men  light  up  some  little  patch  of  lifeless  wall  with 


74  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

feeble  torches,  or  wake  some  little  space  around  them 
with  half-whispered  words, —  a  wizard  gleam,  a 
stealthy  sound,  —  and  all  is  dark  again  and  still.  To 
make  these  profound  sepulchral  recesses  of  nature 
and  art  endurable,  light  must  have  shone  through 
them  from  an  Invisible  Sun. 

The  Hindu  thinker  found  Deity  most  near  to  him, 
TheLan-  not  as  Person  nor  as  visible  Shape,  but  as 
guage.  Word,  the  symbol  of  pure  thought,  in  his  own 
marvellous  .Sanskrit.  It  was  in  language,  the  most 
purely  intellectual,  most  nearly  spiritual,  of  all  human 
products,  —  and  we  might  almost  say  it  was  in  language 
only,  —  that  he  showed  absolute  mastery  in  constructive 
work.  With  pious  zeal  he  perfected  and  transmitted 
this,  the  express  image  of  his  ideal  life.  He  wrought 
it  out  in  love  and  faith  and  patience,  in  the  depths  of 
mind,  far  back  in  antiquity,  without  aid  from  abroad ; 
and  then  slowly  developed  or  decomposed  this  divine 
"Word"  into  many  popular  dialects,  —  still  holding 
its  purest  form  sacred  and  inviolable.1  "Speech, 
melodious  Vach,"  says  the  Rig  Veda,  "was  queen  of 
the  Gods ;  generated  by  them,  and  divided  into  many 
portions."2  So  grew  up  this  typical  language,  if  not 
the  norm  of  Indo-European  speech,  yet  the  centre 
and  hearth  of  this  brotherhood  of  tongues  ;  reveal- 
ing their  several  resources  through  the  wealth  of  its 
radical  forms  and  structural  aptitudes.  Its  rich 
grammatical  elements  are  combined  with  unequalled 
simplicity  of  law.     It  is  pre-eminent  among  languages 

1  The  Sanskrit  was  the  vernacular  tongue  of  Northern  India  in  early  times.  It  began 
to  die  out  in  the  ninth  century  B.C.  In  the  sixth  it  was  no  longer  spoken.  In  the  third 
it  became  a  sacred  language  ;  and  by  the  fifth  of  the  Christian  era  was  established  as  such 
throughout  India.  (See  Benfey,  in  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts,  II.  143.)  Muir  has  carefully 
traced  it  back  to  Vedic  times,  and  shown  that  the  oldest  hymns  were  composed  in  the 
every-day  speech  of  their  authors. 

2  R.  V.,  VIII.  89,  10;  X.  125. 


THE    HINDU    MIND. 


75 


in  creative  faculty,  in  flexional  and  verbal  develop- 
ment ;  full  of  terms  descriptive  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  processes ;  deficient  only  in  those  which  re- 
late to  practical  details.  The  profound  thirst  of  the 
Hindu  mind  for  unity  is  indicated  in  its  wonderful 
synthetic  power  of  fusing  radical  words  into  com- 
posites ;  so  great,  that  a  Sanskrit  verse  of  thirty 
syllables  may  be  made  to  contain  but  a  single  word. 
Its  makers  gave  it  a  name  which  means  perfected, 
and  not  perfected  only,  but  adorned;  for  to  them 
Beauty  was  in  the  Word  of  the  Mind,  not  the  Work 
of  the  Hand.  This  was  their  Kcsmos.  They  created 
it  by  pure  force  of  native  genius,  and  as  in  sport; 
when,  and  in  how  long  a  time,  we  know  not.  We 
know  only  that  it  was  too  near  and  too  dear  to  their 
hearts  to  need  letters  for  its  transmission.  It  is  a  ma- 
ture product  when  we  first  find  it  in  the  oldest  Vedas, 
which  were  preserved  without  an  alphabet  for  ages, 
in  the  memory  alone.  At  last  came  writing.  Then 
as  sound  had  been  "God's  music,"  so  letters  became 
the  chords  thereof.1  The  Sanskrit  letters  are  not 
transformed  picture-signs,  but  something  more  ab- 
stract and  intellectual.  They  are  phonetic,  symbols 
of  articulate  sounds.  Infinite  was  the  toil  the  Hindu 
grammarians  for  thousands  of  years  expended  in  de- 
veloping the  laws  of  euphonic  structure ;  drawing 
from  this  fine  and  facile  tongue  of  theirs  as  from  a 
perfect  instrument,  with  what  has  been  called  a  "pro- 
found musical  feeling,"  harmonious  assonances  more 
regular  and  delicate  than  the  Greek.  They  referred 
its  primal  sounds  to  the  organs  by  which  they  were 
severally  shaped.  And,  with  a  presentiment  of  sci- 
entific truth,  they  sought  to  divine  an  essential  relation, 


1  Karma  Mimansa. 


j6  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

existing  in  the  nature  of  things,  between  the  sounds 
of  words  and  the  objects  they  represented.1  They 
went  so  far  as  to  trace  back  the  whole  language  to 
about  fifteen  hundred  root-words,  to  all  of  which  they 
ascribed  distinct  meanings.  Eichhoff  enumerates 
nearly  five  hundred  of  these  in  his  Indo-European 
Grammar,  fully  illustrating  the  clear  light  they  throw 
upon  the  comparative  etymology  of  this  whole  family 
of  languages.2 

But  it  was  not  till  the  Buddhist  reaction  that  the 
uses  of  writing  were  recognized.  The  Brahmanical 
laws  indicate  contempt  of  this  instrument  for  the 
diffusion  of  truth.  Was  their  opposition  based  partly 
on  the  fact  of  its  democratic  tendencies,  as  was  that 
of  the  Christian  Church  afterwards  to  the  invention 
of  printing? 

Recent  writers  have  described  the  Hindus  as  igno- 
rant and  wasteful,  careless  to  better  their  con- 

Practical  . 

andphysi-  dition,  lacking  incomprehension  of  the  uses 
caiinterests.  of  money#  They  have  pointed  to  the  primi- 
tive and  almost  worthless  structure  of  their  ploughs 
and  other  agricultural  implements  ;  to  the  comparative 
absence  of  variety  and  ingenuity  in  their  earlier  at- 
tempts at  construction  in  the  useful  arts  ;  to  the  imper- 
fection of  their  materials  for  dye-work,  glass-blowing, 
and  all  chemical  operations,  and  especially  their  dis- 
abilities in  art  from  the  want  of  substantial  stone- 
wares and  fire-bricks  for  furnaces  ;  and  to  the  lack  of 
all  provision  in  their  laws  for  the  protection  of  me- 
chanical, artistic,  or  literary  genius  in  the  fruit  of  their 
labors.  Much  of  this  is  the  result  of  depressing 
causes  in  the  history  of  the  last  few  centuries.  It  is 
certainly  in  many  respects  in   striking    contrast  with 

1  Karma  Mimansa.  2  Eichhoff,  pp.  21,  29,  162. 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  77 

the  state  of  the  fine  as  well  as  of  the  useful  arts,  as 
described  in  the  old  national  epics  and  dramas,  as  in 
the  account  of  India,  with  special  reference  to  Budd- 
hist art,  given  by  Fahian,  the  "Chinese  Pilgrim,"  in  the 
fifth  century.  British  officials  describe  many  of  the 
tax-free  lands  as  showing  marks  of  agricultural  skill 
quite  equal  to  those  of  Western  Europe.1  Nor  must 
we  do  injustice  to  the  genius  that  may  show  itself  in 
the  very  use  of  crude  conditions.  The  Hindu  woman, 
working  up  raw  cotton  into  thread  for  the  incompar- 
able muslins  they  call  "  running  waters  "  or  "  webs  of 
woven  air,"  with  no  other  instrument  than  a  fish-bone, 
a  hand  roller,  and  a  little  spindle  turning  in  a  bit  of 
shell,  is  at  all  events  an  artist,  endowed  with  the 
rare  gift  of  making  the  most  of  simplest  and  nearest 
materials.  The  above  unfavorable  report  is  certainly 
exaggerated.  But  enough  of  truth  remains  in  it  to 
indicate  that  there  are  drawbacks  in  the  qualities  of 
this  race  to  steady  progress  in  practical  directions, 
without  impulse  from  abroad. 

The  Hindu  mastered  many  physical  uses.  Yet  he 
was,  on  the  whole,  disinclined  to  the  labor  of  devel- 
oping them.  His  passive  temperament  was  unsuited 
for  material  progress,  having  little  curiosity  and  little 
zeal  for  conflict  with  reluctant  nature.  The  caste- 
system  was  an  exponent  of  his  dislike  of  movement. 
His  favorite  games  are  dice  and  chess ;  the  latter  his 
own  invention,  his  typical  gift  to  all  civilized  races ; 
and  both  answering  to  the  combination  of  a  passive 
body  with  a  speculative  mind.  The  pivot  of  most 
Hindu  philosophy  has  been  the  pure  unreality  of 
phenomena.  It  was  as  if  this  busy  brain,  debarred 
from    social-  construction,    teeming   with    thoughts   it 

1  Speeches  before  the  British  Tndia  Society  (1839-40). 


^8  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

could  not  liberate  into  the  world  of  action,  had  de- 
clined to  accept  all  external  tests  of  validity  whatever. 
And  the  history  of  its  metaphysical  speculation  proves 
in  many  ways  that  man  cannot  live  by  Thought  alone. 

It  is  not  implied  that  these  tendencies  shape  the 
whole  current  of  Hindu  thought.  We  do  not  forget 
how  the  people  of  India  have  gloried  in  their  great 
epochs  of  wide  literary  culture.  We  do  not  forget 
that  twice  at  least,  in  their  history,  all  the  rays  of 
Oriental  learning,  science,  and,  song  were  gathered 
into  a  focus  of  free  energy,  —  at  the  brilliant  courts  of 
Vikramaditya,  the  companion  of  poets,  and  Akbar, 
the  "  Guardian  of  Mankind."  We  do  not  forget  the 
opportunity  constantly  open,  on  this  great  mustering 
ground  of  nations,  for  the  friction  of  races  and  the 
sympathy  of  religions.  Nor  can  we  overlook  that 
passionate  love  of  the  Hindus  for  dramatic  personation, 
—  the  sign  of  a  wide  scope  of  the  imaginative  and 
sympathetic  faculties,  —  which  has  shown  such  pro- 
ductivity in  their  literature,  and  makes  the  social 
delight  of  every  village  in  the  land. 

The  results  of  excessive  abstraction  and  contempla- 
tion, even  in  India,  are  equally  far  from  encouraging 
the  widely  held  belief  that  these  mental  habits  are  de- 
void of  noble  uses.  The  reactions  to  realism  that 
were  involved  in  their  natural  processes  of  development 
will  claim  our  admiration.  And  we  are  especially  to 
study  the  splendid  capacity,  philosophical  and  relig- 
ious, —  or  both,  since  the  two  in  Oriental  life  are 
substantially  one,  —  which  was  brought  out  in  the 
endeavor  to  live  by  Thought  alone. 

It  should  seem  that  personal  energy  belongs  of  right 
Force  of      to  the  Hindu,  as  a  member  of  that  Indo-Euro- 

Physical  . 

Nature.       pean  family  of  nations,  in  whom  a  vigorous 


THE    HINDU    MIND. 


79 


practical  genius,  whether  as  Persian,  Greek,  Ro- 
man, or  Teutonic,  appears  to  be  inherent  and  irre- 
pressible. How  is  it  that,  in  his  case,  the  old  Aryan 
manliness  and  vigor  have  yielded  to  enervation,  and 
the  instincts  of  liberty  and  progress  comparatively 
failed?  Though  the  extent  of  this  failure  has  been 
greatly  overstated,  there  is  truth  enough  in  the  pre- 
vailing estimate  to  mark  an  exceptional  fact,  which 
requires  explanation.  It  is  doubtless  an  extreme  illus- 
tration of  the  power  of  climatic  conditions.  In  every 
other  instance  Aryan  migration  has  been  westward  or 
north-westward  :  in  this  alone  it  has  been  southward. 
The  dreamy  and  passive  element  obtained  mastery 
only  after  the  tribes  had  penetrated  the  whole  breadth 
of  Northern  India  from  the  Indus  eastwards,  and 
settled  in  the  sultry  valley  of  the  Ganges ;  where 
to  this  day  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  rear  children 
of  English  blood,  without  annual  migrations  to  the 
cooler  hills.1  Montesquieu  has  suggested,2  as  one 
cause  of  the  general  absence  of  practical  energy  and 
free  progress  in  the  Asiatic  races,  the  fact  that  Asia 
has  not,  like  Europe,  —  and  we  may  add  America, — 
a  temperate  zone  open  in  all  directions,  where  races 
of  equal  force  can  enter  into  free  mutual  relations, 
whether  of  collision  or  of  combination.  Her  tribes 
are  brought  together  only  by  sharp  transitions  of 
climate  ;  and  easy  conquests  by  superior  physical 
vigor  are  followed  by  rapid  enervation  of  the  con- 
querors, whose  movement,  from  obvious  causes,  has 
usually  been  from  the  mountains  to  the  plains.  The 
descent  of  the  Aryans  into  a  tropic  wilderness,  where 
the   invigorating  alternations   of  summer  and  winter 

1  See  Jeffrey's  British  Army  in  India.  Appendix. 

2  Esprit  des  Lois,  XVII.  3. 


SO  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

were  wanting,  and  every  day  renewed  the  same  be- 
wildering luxuriance  of  leafage,  blossom,  and  fruit 
throughout  the  year,  was  subject  to  these  transforming 
conditions.  We  should  naturally  expect  that  these 
hardy  mountaineers,  sweeping  down  from  their  cool 
eyries  in  the  Hindu  Kuh  and  Kashmir,  into  a  land 
wherein 

"  the  languid  air  did  swoon, 
Breathing  like  one  that  had  a  heavy  dream, 
A  land  where  all  things  always  seemed  the  same,"  — 

would  lose  intellectual  muscle  and  nerve.  The  colos- 
sal unity  and  simplicity  of  movement  in  the  natural 
world  would  be  reflected  in  their  mental  processes ; 
and  an  atmosphere  heavy  with  perfumes  would  lull 
them  to  rest  in  mystical  reverie. 

We  may  easily  exaggerate  these  forces,  as  well 
as  the  enervation  we  adduce  them  to  explain.  Por- 
tions of  India  have  a  cool  and  bracing  atmosphere ; 
and  the  tribes  that  occupy  the  higher  levels  are  vigor- 
ous, active,  and  enterprising.  But  the  climate  of  the 
lowlands,  where  Hindu  culture  has  had  its  centre, 
although  modified  by  the  wind  and  rain  of  the  wet 
season,  is  in  all  essential  respects  determined  by  the 
tropical  heats.  A  colossal  vegetation  covers  this  rich 
alluvion,  through  which  enormous  rivers  flow  from 
the  Himalaya  to  the  sea,  enclosed  between  vast  moun- 
tain ranges  on  the  north  and  lofty  plateaus  on  the 
south.  An  almost  vertical  Sun,  whose  beams  have 
ever  held  the  Hindu's  love  and  awe,  —  all  the  more 
strongly  because  relied  on  to  smite  the  sensitive  head  of 
the  invading  Englishman,  while  they  have  been  slowly 
transforming  the  texture  of  his  own  dark  skin  till  it 
ceased  to  suffer  from  their  shafts,  —  has  proved  master 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  8l 

of  the  very  movement  of  his  thought,  and  disposed  it 
to  the  languor  of  contemplation  and  the  melting  pas- 
sivity of  dreams. 

Yet  that  Aryan  vitality,  which  in  the  North  turned  to 
Teutonic  sinew  and  in  the  West  to  Persian  and  intellectual 
Hellenic  nerve,  even  here  wrought  its  special  !^adctl°en_s 
wonders.  Its  brain,  self-centred,  enclosed  in  suits. 
tropical  forests  and  under  all-mastering  heats,  and 
without  the  fine  stimulation  from  climate  and  the  inter- 
mingling of  vigorous  races  which  the  Greek  enjoyed, 
nevertheless  became  an  immensely  productive  force. 
And  the  fact  tends  to  show  that,  while  climatic  or  other 
physical  conditions  modify  original  spiritual  forces, 
they  are  not  adequate  to  explain  civilizations,  nor  to 
supply  the  inspiration  which  sustains  and  directs  them. 
The  elements  which  characterize  the  later  develop- 
ment of  Hindu  mind  were,  as  we  shall  see,  present  in 
its  infancy.  The  solitude  and  heat  of  the  Indian  wil- 
derness gave  it  no  new  forces,  but  subserved  a  certain 
original  ethnic  personality,  its  special  essence ;  some 
of  whose  qualities  indeed  they  forced  into  excessive 
action,  thereby  provoking  the  others  to  bring  out  their 
latent  strength  in  energetic  reactions.  Such  historical 
results  as  these  have  an  important  bearing  on  the  phi- 
losophy of  development,  by  which  modern  science 
seeks  to  interpret  the  growth  of  man.  They  illustrate 
the  truth  which  all  evolutionists  affirm,  that  no  histor- 
ical changes  require  to  be  explained  by  creative  inter- 
ference with  the  natural  order.  But  they  also  tell 
against  the  tendency  which  prevails,  in  many  scien- 
tists of  this  class,  to  mistake  the  physical  conditions  of 
phenomena  for  their  productive  cause,  and  to  ignore 
forges,  inexplicable  by  such  conditions,  which  work 
in  every  step  of  the  process,  involving  the  precedence 

6 


82  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

and  creativity  of  mind,  and  constituting  spiritual  sub- 
stance; more  or  less  enduring  forms  of  which  appear 
in  race,  in  personality,  and  in  the  constancy  and  wis- 
dom of  natural  law. 

As  it  is  not  incapacity,  so  it  is  by  no  means  pure 
enervation  that  we  note  in  the  passive  quality  of  Hindu 
temperament.  It  is  rather,  as  one  has  well  defined  it, 
an  "  inclination  towards  repose  ;  "  a  constant  reference 
to  coming  rest,  alike  in  things  material  and  spiritual, 
as  the  consummation  of  endeavor  and  the  end  of  strife  ; 
explicable  in  part  by  the  recurrence  of  a  sultry,  relaxing 
season,  as  the  predestined  end  of  the  climatic  year,  and 
the  most  salient  fact  of  its  monotonous  round.  This  is 
of  course  compatible  with  a  degree  of  active  energy. 
The  religion  of  Brahman  and  Buddhist  alike  was 
aspiration  to  repose ;  yet  its  disciplines  were  pursued 
with  incomparable  energy  and  zeal. 

"  If  the  Hindus  are  not  enterprising,"  says  Lassen, 
"they  are  industrious,  wherever  they  have  real  labors 
to  perform.  They  show  much  power  of  endurance, 
and  bear  heavy  burdens  with  patience.  And  they 
avoid  toils  and  dangers  more  from  a  dislike  to  have 
their  quiet  disturbed,  than  from  want  of  courage ;  a 
quality  in  which  they  are  well  known  to  be  in  no 
way  deficient."  1 

The  freedom  and  force  of  self-conscious  manhood 
could  hardly  be  expected  of  a  people  who  were  mi- 
grating further  and  further  into  tropical  lowlands  and 
wildernesses.  The  keen  goads  of  the  mountain  air 
were  forgotten.  Lassitude  crept  over  the  will  and  re- 
laxed the  practical  understanding,  till  they  seemed  to 
lie  buried  in  the  helplessness  of  dreams,  confounded 
with  this  overwhelming  life  of  physical  nature ;  a/id 

1  Lassen,  I.  pp.  411,  412. 


THE    HINDU    MIND.  83 

their  place  came  to  be  defined  by  the  philosopher  as 
that  stage  in  human  development  where  man  as  yet 
knows  not  that  he  is  other  than  the  world  in  which  he 
dwells.  But,  if  we  look  more  closely,  we  shall  find 
that  the  facts  are  not  wholly  as  they  have  seemed, 
and  that  the  severity  of  the  Hegelian  formula  is  far 
from  fairly  representing  them  ;  since  man  is  not  here  as 
an  embryo  in  the  womb  of  nature,  but  as  living  force 
that  reacts  upon  it,  though  with  little  help  from  the 
practical  understanding.  And,  if  we  listen  atten- 
tively, we  become  assured  that  even  the  somnambulism 
of  the  soul  may  be  inspired ;  hearing  from  these 
dreamers,  also,  who  at  least  have  faith  in  their  dream, 
not  a  few  of  those  accents 

"  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
The  heedless  world  hath  never  lost." 


III. 


THE     RIGVEDA. 


"  I  have  proclaimed,  O  Agni,  these  thy  ancient  hymns;  and  new  hymns  for  thee  who 
art  of  old.  These  great  libations  have  been  made  to  Him  who  showers  benefits  upon 
us.  The  Sacred  Fire  has  been  kept  from  generation  to  generation."  — Hymn  of  VisvA- 
mitra. 


THE     HYMNS. 


TT  is  not  yet  determined  at  what  period  the  Aryas 
■*■  descended  into  the  plains  of  India  ;  whether  Antiquity  of 
moved  by  one  impulse  or  in  successive  waves  the  Hymns- 
of  immigration  ;  whether  impelled  by  disaster  or 
desire.1  While  their  religious  traditions  indicate  a 
march  of  conquest,  those  of  agriculture,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  embodied  in  the  extensive  organization  of 
the  village  communes,  have  been  supposed  to  point 
with  greater  probability  to  a  peaceful  colonization.2 
Their  earliest  footprints  at  the  base  of  the  Himalayas 
are  effaced.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  their  name 
means  "  men  of  noble  race  "  or  tillers  of  the  earth.3 
The  etymology  which  derives  it  from  roots  (ar,  or  ri) 
that  signify  movement,*-  is  at  least  finely  sugges- 
tive of  the  destiny  of  their  race.  It  is  pleasant  too 
to  trace,  however  dimly,  a  primitive  association  of 
labor  with  dignity  and  success,  and  to  note  that  the 
name  assumed  by  this  vigorous  people  for  themselves 
served  also  for  their  gods.5  In  later  times  it  was 
applicable  to  the  Vaisyas,  or  third  caste,  who  consti- 

1  Lassen,  Indische  Alterthnmskunde,  I.  51s  ;  MUller,  in  Bunsen's  Philos.  of  History, 
I.  129 ;  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts,  vol.  ii.  ;  Ludlow's  Brit.  India,  I.  37. 

2  Maine,  Village  Communities  in  the  East  and  West,  p.  176. 

s  Miiller's  Science  of  Language,  I.  238;  Lassen,  I.  5;  Pictet,  I.  28;  Weber,  Indische 
Studien,  I.  352.     Schoebel  considers  it  the  title  of  the  family  chiefs,  or  patriarchs. 

4  Pictet,  I.  29.     See  the  Lexicons  of  Roth  and  Burnouf. 

5  Rig  Veda,  V.  2,  6 ;  II.  11,  19. 


88  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

tuted  the  mass  of  the  community.1  Dates  are  uncer- 
tain in  this  remote  antiquity.  There  are  signs  that, 
as  early  as  twelve  centuries  before  our  era,  the  Aryas 
were  not  only  a  powerful  people  spread  along  the 
banks  of  the  Indus,  making  obstinate  resistance  with 
trained  elephants  to  the  Assyrian  invaders,  but  had 
even  reached  the  mouths  of  the  Ganges  on  the  extreme 
east  of  India.2  The  whole  intermediate  country  lies 
before  us  in  the  half-light  of  a  heroic  age,  the  scene 
of  epic  and  doubtless  historic  wars,  of  tribe  with  tribe 
and  dynasty  with  dynasty. 

But  we  have  a  record  more  precious  than  many 
precise  facts  and  dates.  We  have  the  sacred  song 
(Veda,  or  wisdom2-)  of  these  otherwise  silent  genera- 
tions. The  Rig  Veda,  oldest  of  the  four  Hindu  Bibles, 
—  the  other  three  are  mainly  its  liturgical  develop- 
ment,4—  is  a  collection  of  about  a  thousand  Hymns 
("Mantras,"  bom  of  mind)  composed  by  different 
Rishis,  or  seers  —  not  one  of  which  can  have  orig- 
inated later  than  twenty-six  hundred,  and  few  of 
them  later  than  three  thousand  years  ago.  These 
initial  syllables  of  Hindu  faith  are  probably  the  devo- 
tions of  still  earlier  times.6  They  appear  to  have  been 
composed  in  that  part  of  north-western  India  now 
called  the  Panjab,  whose  wide  slopes  descend  sea- 
ward between  the  upper  Indus  and  the  Jumna ;  a 
land  always  famous  for  the  spirit  and  grace  of  its  free 

1  St.  Martin,  Geographie  du  Veda,  p.'  84  :  Miiller,  ut  supra. 

2  Ktesias:  Duncker,  Gesch.  d.  Altertk.,  II.  18. 

3  From  the  root  vid,  to  know;  Greek,  olda ;  Lat.,  video;  Germ.,  wissen;  Eng.,  wit, 
wisdom. 

*  "The  Rig  Veda,"  says  Mauu,  "  is  sacred  to  the  gods:  the  Yajur  relates  to  man; 
the  Sama,  to  the  manes  of  ancestors."  The  Atharva  consists,  mainly,  of  formulas  for  use 
in  expiations,  incantations,  and  other  rites. 

8  Muller's  Sansk.  Literal.,  4S1,  572 ;  Whitney,  in  Chr.  Exam.,  1S61,  p.  256  ;  Wilson's 
Introd.  to  Rig  Veda  ;  Duncker,  II.  18  ;  Koeppen,  Relig.  d.  Buddha,  I.  12 ;  Colebrooke's 
Essays,  I.  129  ;  Lassen,  I.  749. 


THE    HYMNS.  89 

tribes,  having  its  outlook  on  soaring  mountains  and 
limitless  snow-reaches ;  a  land  of  picturesque  hill 
ranges  and  of  redundant  streams,  whose  rushing 
waters  these  children  of  Nature  loved  to  celebrate 
in  their  sacred  songs. 

We  possess  this  Rig  Veda  in  precisely  the  state, 
down  to  the  number  of  verses  and  syllables,  in  which 
it  existed  centuries  before  the  Christian  era.1  It  prob- 
ably represents  the  earliest  distinctly  expressed  phase 
of  religious  sentiment  known  to  history.2  There  is 
not  the  slightest  sign  of  a  knowledge  of  writing  in  the 
whole  collection.3  In  all  ancient  literature,  there  is 
no  parallel  to  this  inviolable  transmission  of  "  sacred 
text,"  and  the  veneration  with  which  men  are  wont  to 
regard  such  protection  from  the  vicissitudes  of  time 
may  be  more  justly  claimed  for  this  the  oldest  of 
Bibles,  than  for  any  other  in  the  world. 

And  the  respect  deepens  when  we  reflect  that  these 
Hymns  are  outcomes  of  a  yet  remoter  Past ;  pre-vedic 
that  they  point  us  beyond  themselves  to  mar-  Rel>sion- 
vellous  creative  faculty  in  the  imagination  and  faith 
of  what  is  otherwise  wholly  inaccessible,  the  childhood, 
of  Man.  They  present  a  language  already  perfected 
without  the  aid  of  a  written  alphabet ; 4  a  literature 
already  preserved  for  ages  in  the  religious  memory 
alone  !  They  sing  of  older  hymns  which  the  fathers 
sang,  —  of  "  ancient   sages    and  elder   gods."     They 

1  Miiller  and  Whitney,  ut  supra;  Colebrooke,  in  Asiatic  Researches.,  VIII.  481; 
Craufurd's  Aficient  and  Modern  India,  ch.  viii. 

2  Miiller,  557. 

3  Miiller  (497,  52S)  finds  no  sign  of  writing  in  ancient  Hindu  history.  Whitney  (Chr. 
Exam.,  1861)  thinks  it  may  have  been  employed,  though  not  for  higher  literary  purposes. 

*  The  language  of  the  Rig  Veda  differs  in  many  respects  from  the  later  Sanskrit,  the 
learned  language  of  its  commentators.  "  Its  freedom  is  untrammelled  by  other  rules  than 
those  of  common  usage."  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts,  II.  223 ;  Whitney,  in  Journal  of 
A  mer.  Oriental  Society,  III.  296. 


gO  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

were  themselves  old  at  the  earliest  epoch  to  which  we 
can  trace  them.  Their  religion,  like  their  language, 
was  already  mature  when  they  were  born.  Do  not 
seek  in  them  the  beginning  of  the  religious  sentiment, 
the  dawning  of  the  Idea  of  the  Divine.  Their  deities 
are  all  familiar  and  ancestral.  It  is  already  an  inti- 
mate household  faith,  which  centuries  have  endeared. 
"  This  is  our  prayer,  the  old,  the  prayer  of  our  fa- 
thers."1 "Our  fathers  resorted  to  Indra  of  old  :  they 
discovered  the  hidden  light  and  caused  the  dawn  to 
rise;  they  who  showed  us  the  road,  the  earliest 
guides."  "Now,  as  of  old,  make  forward  paths  for 
the  new  hymn,  springing  from  our  heart."  "  Hear  a 
hymn  from  me,  a  modern  bard."2  As  far  back  as 
we  can  trace  the  life  of  man,  we  find  the  river  of 
prayer  and  praise  flowing  as  naturally  as  it  is  flowing 
now.  We  cannot  find  its  beginning  because  we  can- 
not find  the  beginning  of  the  soul. 

The  earliest  religion  is  one  with  the  maturest  in  this 
TheVedic  respect :  that  it  records  itself  in  the  details  of 
People.  life.  And  these  primitive  Hymns  have  been 
xalled  the  "historical"  Veda,  so  real  is  the  picture 
they  give  of  the  Aryas  after  their  descent  into  India. 
They  are  described  as  a  pastoral  and  to  some  extent 
agricultural  race,  divided  into  clans,  and  often  en- 
gaged in  wars  of  ambition  or  self-defence.3  Their  ene- 
mies, designated  as  Dasyus,  or  foes,4  and  Rakshasas, 
or  giants,4  are  unquestionably  the  aborigines  of  North- 
ern India,  and  are  described  as  of  beastly  appearance, 

1  r.  v.,  III.  39,  2;  1.48. 14. 

2  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts,  III.  220-230. 

3  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  hymns  contain  traces  of  an  opposition  between  a  peace- 
ful and  a  warlike  element  within  the  old  Aryan  community,  ancestors  perhaps  of  the 
priestly  and  soldier  castes,  respectively.     Wheeler,  Hist,  of  India,  II.  439. 

4  Muir.     See  also  Bunsen's  Philos.  of  History,  I.  343. 


THE    HYMNS.  9 1 

every  way  abominable,  and  even  mad.  They  are 
sometimes  represented  as  magicians,  who  withhold 
the  rain  in  the  mountain  fastnesses ;  and  identified 
mythologically  with  darkness  and  drought.  They 
are  declared  to  be  living  without  prayers  or  rites,  or 
any  religious  faith ;  charges  which  go  further  to  prove 
the  devotion  of  the  invaders  to  their  own  belief,  than 
the  atheism  of  the  tribes  they  despised.  The  extreme 
religious  sensitiveness  of  the  Aryas  is  attested  by  the 
frequency  with  which  these  charges  of  godlessness  are 
repeated,  in  the  strongest  terms  of  indignation  as  well  as 
contempt ;  feelings  which  point  perhaps  to  barbarous 
practices  abhorrent  to  their  own  purer  faith.  Their 
social  ideas  indicate  primitive  relations  and  pursuits. 
Their  political  institutions  very  closely  resembled  those 
of  the  Homeric  Greeks.  Their  names  for  king  meant 
father  of  the  house  and  herdsman  of  the  tribe.  Their 
public  assemblies  they  called  "  cowpens,"  and  war  was 
"desire  of  cattle."  They  prayed  for  larger  herds,  for 
fleet  horses,  broader  pastures,  and  abundant  rain;  for 
nourishing  food  ;  for  valor  and  strength  ;  for  long  life 
and  many  children ;  for  protection  against  enemies 
and  the  beasts  of  the  wild. 

This  infantile  human  nature  nevertheless  adored 
the  Light.  The  dawn  and  the  decline  of  TheWor- 
Day,  and  the  starlit  Night  that  hinted  in  its  Light° 
splendors  an  unseen  sun  returning  on  a  path  behind 
the  veil,  were  dear  to  its  imagination  and  its  faith  ; 
and  Fire,  in  all  its  mysterious  forms,  from  the  spark 
that  lighted  the  simple  oblation,  and  the  flame  that 
rose  from  the  domestic  hearth,  to  that  central  orb,  in 
which  the  prescience  of  their  active  instinct  saw,  so 
long  ago,  an  all-productive  cosmic  energy,1  was  every- 

1  See  Hymns  quoted  by  Burnouf,  Essai  sur  le  Veda,  ch.  xv. 


92  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

where  one  and  the  same,  alike  mysterious,  alike  divine. 
And  this  vital  fire  of  the  universe  was  ever  within 
call,  stooping  to  human  conditions,  respondent  to  theii 
need  and  will ;  at  once  a  father  and  a  child  ;  born  when 
the  seeker  would,  out  of  dark  wombs  in  herb  and  tree  ; 
waiting  there  to  kindle  at  the  touch  of  his  hand,  when 
he  rubbed  the  two  bits  of  wood,  or  turned  the  wheel  of 
his  fire-churn,  —  as  if  his  busy  fingers  reached  through 
the  bright  deeps  on  high,  and  brought  life  at  their 
tips,  kindred  life,  fresh  from  the  central  flame.1  In 
the  imagery  of  the  hymn,  they  are  "the  ten  brothers, 
whose  work,  one  with  the  prayer,  brings  forth  the 
god."  The  worshipper,  plying  them  with  power, 
"plants  the  eye  of  Surya  in  the  sky,  and  disperses 
the  delusions  of  darkness." 2 

Thus  early  in  the  history  of  religion  the  act  of 
its  creative  worship  is  blended  with  a  sense  of  creative 
and  pro-      facuity.      Man  is  here    dimly   aware    of  the 

phetic  J  J 

meaning,  truth  that  he  makes  and  remakes  his  own  con- 
ception of  the  divine ;  that  the  revealing  of  deity 
must  come  in  the  natural  activity  of  his  human 
powers. 

This  prophetic  instinct  thrilled  within  him,  at  each 
spark  he  drew  from  the  splinter's  cleft  to  kindle  his 
altar-fire,  so  long  before  science  had  secularized  his 
mastery  of  nature  in  lightning-conductor  and  electric  jar. 
There  was  more  in  this  delight  than  the  mere  satis- 
faction of  physical  necessities.  With  every  upward 
dart  of  flame  from  the  dark  wood,  the  god  was  new 
born ;  a  mystery  of  answered  prayer  and  expanded 
oblation.     So  the  omnipotence  of  the  child's  dream 

i  So  the  North- American  tribes.  Brinton  [Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  144)  quotes 
a  Shawnee  prophet  as  saying:  "Know  that  the  life  in  your  body  and  the  fire  on  your 
hearth  are  one,  and  both  from  the  same  source." 

2  R.  V.,  V.  40;  X.  62. 


THE    HYMNS.  93 

was  the  first  regenerator  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 
The  out-goings  of  the  morning  shone  with  the  cour- 
age and  strength  of  his  inward  day.1 

Such  was  the  religious  rite  of  the  old  Vedic  fami- 
lies. Each  had  its  altar  and  its  sacred  Fire.  The 
family  hearth  was  the  first  "  holy  of  holies  ; "  and  the 
flame  kept  burning  in  every  household  was  the  sign 
of  perpetuity  for  all  powers  that  bound  men  in  social 
relations.  And  not  for  the  Vedic  families  alone.  The 
Romans  and  the  Greeks  also  made  the  hearth  the 
centre  of  religious  faith  and  rite ;  and  so  the  word 
Hestia,  or  Vesta  (the  altar),  originally  signifying  the 
Jixcd  -place  for  the  family  hearth-flame,  came  to  rep- 
resent the  divine  mother,  to  whom  all  deities  bent  the 
knee  with  the  old  filial  reverence  for  that  flame,  at  the 
hearth  of  the  world.  Vesta,  or  womanly  purity,  was 
worshipped  in  the  "  ever-living  fire,"  which  meant  the 
inviolability  of  the  family,  and  the  sacred  meaning 
that  invests  its  transmission  of  human  life.2 

In  the  later  age  of  the  Hindu  epics,  the  rites  of  a 
whole  people  in  honor  of  their  king  are  still  performed 
with  the  primitive  instruments  of  these  joyful  oblations  : 
not  only  mortar  and  pestle  for  crushing  the  Soma 
plant,  but  the  two  pieces  of  wood  for  kindling  the 
altar  fire.3 

This    original    delight    in    producing    the    element 

1  Pillon  (Les  Religions  de  Plnde,  in  L^AnnSe  Philosophiqite  for  1S6S)  traces  the 
tyranny  of  the  priesthood  in  later  times  to  this  Vedic  faith  in  the  power  of  prayer  and 
sacrifice  to  bring  forth  and  sustain  the  god.  "  It  is  not  man,  but  the  priest,  that  thus 
creates  the  divine,  in  those  early  sacrifices ;  and  this  naturally  developed  itself  into  the 
divinity  of  the  Brahman."  But  the  writer  seems  to  forget  that  the  priesthood,  as  a  distinct 
class,  was  not  then  conceived  of  as  masters  of  this  simple  rite.  And  the  feeling  of  creative 
power  involved  in  it  belonged  to  the  self-confidence  of  the  religious  sentiment,  was  ,its 
natural  faith,  its  wonder  at  the  work  of  its  own  hands.  That  its  prestige  came  to  be  con- 
centrated in  the  worship  of  the  priest  as  such  was  due  to  other  causes,  tending  to  narrow 
and  ritualize  the  religious  life  of  the  Hindus ;  to  such,  among  others,  as  ecclesiastical 
organization,  climate,  and,  later,  passivity  of  temperament. 

2  Cicero,  Pro  Domo,  §  41.  3  Ramayana,  II.  ch.  Ixxxiii. 


94 


RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 


which  animates  the  world,  and  in  preserving  its  pure 
and  helpful  forces,  is  retained  in  all  religions  of  the 
Indo-European  race.  It  is  consecrated  in  myth  and 
rite,  and  fable  and  spell.  Its  vestiges  are  in  the  legend 
of  Prometheus,  civilizer  of  men  through  this  secret  of 
power ;  in  the  Roman  Vestal  Fire ;  in  the  lighting 
of  the  sacred  lamps  in  Christian  churches  ;  and  in  the 
"need-fires  "  to  remove  evil  and  cure  disease,  familiar 
to  the  Germanic  tribes.1  The  races  of  the  New 
World  also  guarded  the  sacred  element  with  the  same 
loyalty,  and  renewed  it  by  the  same  primitive  method 
of  friction  which  the  Aryas  of  the  Veda  employed.2 
Man  could  not  forget  that  pregnant  dawn  of  revela- 
tion, the  discovery  of  his  own  power  to  rekindle  the 
life  of  the  universe. 

From  first  to  last,  what  significance  he  has  read  in 
primitive  Light;  as  element  of  nature,  as  vision  of  the 
Symbolism.  soui  j  The  symbol  is  for  ever  dear.  And 
it  was  as  symbol,  not  as  mere  material  element, 
that  it  had  religious  homage  in  the  early  ages.  It  is 
true  that  developed  symbolism  requires  the  separation 
of  the  thing  from  what  it  represents,  and  the  choice  of 
it  as  representative ;  and  this  can  hardly  belong  to 
Vedic  experience.  But  we  must  remember  that  there 
must  be  an  early  stage  of  unconscious  symbolism,  —  a 
sense  of  help,  beauty,  power  in  the  elements,  already 
obscurely  suggesting  the  intimate  unity  of  nature  with 
man ;  the  condition  and  the  germ  of  all  later  develop- 
ment in  this  direction.  And  this 'is  what  we  find  in 
the  Veda. 

From  the  first  stages  of  its  growth  onwards,  the 

1  Kelly's  Indo-European  Folk-Lore,  ch.  ii. 

2  Compare  Brinton,  p.  143  ;  Prescott's  Peru,  I.  107 ;  and  Domenech's  Deserts  of 
America,  II.  418. 


THE    HYMNS. 


95 


spirit  thus  weaves  its  own  environment :  nature  is 
for  ever  the  reflex  of  its  life.  And  what  but  an  un- 
quenchable aspiration  to  truth  could  have  made  it 
choose  Light  as  its  first  and  dearest  symbol,  reach- 
ing out  a  child's  hand  to  touch  and  clasp  it,  with  the 
joyous  cry,  w  This  is  mine,  mine  to  create,  mine  to 
adore!" 

That  instinctive  cry  predicts  not  only  the  whole 
light-loving  mythology  of  the  Indo-European  races, 
and  its  free  play  through  the  heavens  and  the  earth, 
but  the  concentration  of  the  ripest  intelligence  on 
Light  in  all  forms  and  in  all  senses,  physical,  moral 
and  spiritual.  That  primitive  pursuit  of  a  cosmic 
fire  centred  in  the  sun  was  indeed  natural  divination  : 
it  struck  the  path  which  science  was  ever  afterward  to 
trace  through  the  subtle  forms  and  processes  of  force, 
paying  an  ever  nobler  homage  to  solar  light  and  heat. 
It  is  interpreted  across  thirty  centuries  by  Tyndall's 
song  of  science  to  this  centre  and  source  of  living 
powers.1  That  wonder  and  joy  over  the  first  kindling 
of  the  flame  is  an  earnest  of  the  rapture  which  has 
ever  celebrated  Light  as  type  of  spiritual  resurrection. 
That  infantile  thrill  at  generating  the  "  eye  of  Surya  " 
is  a  germ  of  man's  mature  consciousness  that  knowl- 
edge is  power.  And  that  fearless  clasp  on  the  ele- 
mental fires  predicts  the  full  trust  in  Nature,  which 
at  last  affirms  her,  against  all  implications  of  dogmatic 
theology,  to  be  not  the  spirit's  darkness,  but  its  day. 

Such  prophecy  was  in  that  primal  attraction  to  the 
Light.  Well  might  its  priest  and  poet  sing  at  morn- 
ing, his  face  to  the  rising  sun  :  "  Arise  !  the  breath  of 
our  life  has  come  !     The  darkness  has  fled.     Light 

1  Heat  as  Mode  of  Motion,  pp.  455-459. 


96  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

advances,  pathway  of  the  Sun  !  It  is  Dawn  that  brings 
consciousness  to  men  :  she  arouses  the  living,  each  to 
his  own  work  :  she  quickens  the  dead.  Bright  leader 
of  pure  voices,  she  opens  all  doors;  makes  manifest 
the  treasures ;  receives  the  praises  of  men.  Night 
and  Day  follow  each  other  and  efface  each  other,  as 
they  traverse  the  heavens  :  kindred  to  one  another 
for  ever.  The  path  of  the  sisters  is  unending,  com- 
manded by  the  gods.  Of  one  purpose,  they  strive 
not,  they  rest  not;  of  one  will,  though  unlike.  They 
who  first  beheld  the  Dawn  have  passed  away.  Now 
it  is  we  who  behold  her ;  and  they  who  shall  behold 
her  in  after-times  are  coming  also.  Mother  of  the 
gods,  Eye  of  the  Earth,  Light  of  the  Sacrifice,  for 
us  also  shine  !  "J 

The  old  Vedic  deities  all  centre  in  this  purest  of  the 
Iranian  and  elements.  In  this,  as  in  many  other  respects, 
Indian.  their  affinity  with  the  Avesta-deities  of  the  Ira- 
nians is  so  striking  as  to  prove  beyond  reasonable 
doubt  that  the  two  races  were  originally  one.  Of  this 
primitive  unity  we  have  already  spoken.2  A  sharp 
discordance  seems  to  have  struck  into  it ;  and  the  two 
sections  of  the  Aryan  family,  moving  in  different  direc- 
tions, are  found  using  the  same  mythological  names  in 
opposite  and  hostile  meanings.  The  gods  of  the  one 
are  the  evil  spirits  of  the  other.  But  the  antagonism 
touches  the  names  only.  The  worship  of  the  Light 
stands  unchanged  for  both. 

Unchanged  in  essence.  Yet  there  was  a  difference 
in  the  application  of  this  common  symbol  to  express 
the  inward  experience.     While  the  Iranians  converted 

1  Rig  Veda,  I.  113;  Muir. 

2  Lassen,  I.  527,  529 ;  Bunsen,  Philos.  Hist.,  I.  130 ;  Schoebel,  Richerches  sur  la 
Religion  Premiere  de  la  Raee  Indo-Europhne,  Paris,  1868. 


THE    HYMNS.  97 

the  phenomena  of  nature  into  signs  of  moral  conflict, 
the  Indians,  on  the  other  hand,  made  them  the  divine 
reflex  of  simple  social  instincts  and  practical  pursuits. 
We  see  here  a  happy  confidence  in  these  nearest  ele- 
ments of  experience,  rising  to  the  form  of  religious 
trust.  It  is  coextensive  with  the  tasks  and  the  de- 
sires ;  and  there  was,  moreover,  sufficient  self-respect 
in  this  primitive  sense  of  natural  order  to  claim  freely 
for  human  interests  the  sanction  of  an  intimate  relation 
to  all  vast,  unfathomable  forces  in  the  Universe.  So 
early  was  man,  the  purport  of  nature,  at  home  in  its 
mysteries.  Titanic  Powers  have  tenderly  waited  on 
the  processes  of  his  growth,  and  taken  the  signifi- 
cance his  childish  purpose  craved.  This  lord  of  the 
manor  rules  it  from  his  birth. 

The  Horse  and  the  Cow,  the  nomad's  earliest  help- 
ers and  sustainers,  are  the  earliest  symbols  of  ThePast0.  • 
his  poetic  faith.  The  clouds  are  the  "  herds  ral  symbols- 
of  the  sky;"  "the  many-horned,  moving  cattle,  in  the 
lofty  place,  where  the  wide-stepping  Preserver  shines." 
"When  the  dawns  bring  rosy  beams,  then  these  ruddy 
cows  advance  in  the  sky." 

Vritra  (the  enveloper),  or  Ahi  (the  serpent),  en- 
camped on  the  mountains,  withholds  their  bounty. 
Indra,  as  the  lightning,  pierces  this  foe  with  his 
gleaming  spear,  and  milks  the  nourishers  of  man. 
Down  go  the  drops  to  the  sea  "like  kine."  Ahi  lies 
felled  by  the  bolt,  under  his  mother,  "  like  a  dead  cow 
and  her  calf,  and  the  floods  go  joyfully  over  him." 
The  streams  are  the  "herds  of  the  earth."  The  sum- 
mer drought  is  Ahi's  work,  who  has  driven  them  to 
the  mountain  caves,  or  castles,  and  holds  them  bound. 
Indra  follows,  and  sets  them  free.  His  thunder  is 
"  like  a  cow  lowing  for  her  calf."     Swift  as  thought, 


98  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

the  winds  (Maruts),  "born  among  kine,  strengthened 
with  milk,"  attend  him.  "With  their  roaring  they 
make  the  rocks  tremble,  they  rend  the  kings  of  the 
woods ;  and  men  hear  their  talk  to  each  other,  as 
they  rush  on,  with  awe."  The  clouds  are  their  "spot- 
ted deer,  the  lightnings  their  bright  lances  :  "  they  are 
"heroes,  ever  young,  that  bring  help  to  man."  Indra 
smites  down  Vritra  as  "  an  axe  fells  the  woods  ;  breaks 
down  the  castles  (of  cloud)  ;  hollows  out  the  rivers ; 
splits  the  mountain  in  pieces  like  a  shard."  And 
therefore  the  singers  "bring  their  praises  to  heroic 
Indra,  as  cows  come  home  to  the  milker." 

Ushas,1  the  morning  light,  is  now  a  "maiden,  like 
the  dun  heifer ; "  now  twin  youths,  Asvins,2  on  fleet 
steeds  ;  now  a  "  stately  spouse,  who  steps  forth,  awak- 
ening all  creatures,  stirring  the  birds  to  flight,  and 
jnan  to  his  toil."  Sarama,  the  dawn,  creeps  up  the 
sky,  seeking  right  and  left  for  the  bright  herds,  whom 
the  night  has  stolen,  and  hidden  in  its  caves.  "  As 
mares  bring  up  their  new-born  foals,  so  the  gods  bring 
up  the  rising  sun."  Savitri3  is  the  risen  sun.  "Bright- 
haired,  white-footed  steeds  draw  him  along  his  ancient 
upward  and  downward  paths,  the  paths  without  dust, 
and  built  secure  ;  the  wise,  the  golded-handed,  bounte- 
ous Sun."  He  is  himself  "a  steed,  whom  the  other 
gods  follow  with  vigorous  steps." 

Agni,4  Fire,  is  the  "herdsman's  friend,  bright  in  the 

sacrifice,  and  slays  his  foes."     He  is  the  child 

of  the  two  pieces  of   wood  rubbed  together, 

hidden  in  the  cleft  between  them  ;  brought  to  birth  by 

1  From  us,  to  burn  ;  Gr.,  ^wf  ;  Lat ,  uro;  Germ.,  ost;  Eng.,  east. 
8  From  as,  to  penetrate ;  the  swift  ones ;  Gr.,  wa>f  •  Lat.,  equus, 

*  From  su,  to  produce. 

*  From  ag,  to  move  ;  Lat.,  ignis. 


THE    HYMNS.  99 

trees  and  shrubs,  by  the  clouds  and  the  waters.  He 
is  god  of  the  hearth,  "born  in  the  house,  gracious 
as  a  dwelling,  bringing  joy."  He  is  the  "son  of 
power,  neighing  like  a  horse  when  he  steps  out  of  his 
strong  prison,  spreading  over  the  earth  in  a  moment 
when  he  has  grasped  food  with  his  jaws,  devouring 
the  wood,  surrounding  his  path  with  darkness,  and 
sweeping  his  tail  in  the  wind,  as,  in  the  smoke  column, 
he  ascends  to  heaven."  When  the  lightning  illumines 
the  storm,  he  is  the  "bull,  born  in  the  bed  of  waters, 
who  impregnates  the  herds  of  heaven."  He  is 
"wealth,"  and  whatsoever  means  wealth  to  the  herds- 
man; "like  a  good  son,  like  a  milch  cow,  like  women 
in  a  dwelling;"  "the  light  of  the  sun;"  "the  soul  of 
what  moves  or  rests ;  "  a  deity  pervading  the  world, 
who  is  at  once  bearing  gifts  to  the  gods  from  man, 
and  coming  on  the  earth  to  bless  him.1 

1  Rig  Veda,  fiassim-  All  versions  of  the  Rig  Veda  Hymns  now  accessible  to  students 
have  been  carefully  consulted.  They  are  :  i.  Prof.  H.  H.  Wilson's  English  translation, 
made  under  the  auspices  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  extended  since  his  death,  so 
that  it  now  covers  more  than  half  the  original  collection ;  and  this,  faithful  as  it  is,  has  the 
twofold  disadvantage  of  not  discriminating  the  original  text  from  the  later  commentary  of 
SSyana,  and  of  being  deficient  in  poetic  appreciation  and  simplicity  of  style.  2.  The 
French  version  of  Langlois,  which  evidently  errs  in  the  opposite  direction  of  too  great 
liberality  and  poetic  freedom.  3.  Dr.  Rosen's  admirable  Latin  version,  of  the  highest  au- 
thority with  all  scholars,  but  unfortunately  brought  to  a  close  by  his  early  death,  and  cover- 
ing only  the  greater  part  of  the  First  Book.  4.  Translations,  of  a  large  number  of  Hymns,  — 
into  German,  by  accurate  Oriental  scholars  like  Benfey,  Aufrecht,  and  Roth,  in  the  Ger- 
jman  Oriental  Journals;  and  into  English  by  Max  Miiller  (Sanskrit  Literature)  and  by 
J  Dr.  Muir,  in  his  invaluable  Sanskrit  Texts.  5.  Miiller1  s  long-desired  English  version,  of 
which  only  the  first  volume  has  appeared.  The  quotations  in  the  present  work  have  been 
made  with  preference  of  Benfey  and  Rosen  to  Wilson,  where  the  three  cover  the  same 
ground,  and  give  different  renderings  of  the  text.  A  less  scrupulous  regard  to  accuracy 
would  have  greatly  enlarged,  and  in  the  view,  perhaps,  of  many  readers,  greatly  improved, 
this  account  of  the  Rig  Veda,  by  a  fulness  of  quotation,  which,  however  tempting,  the 
present  state  of  scholarship  on  the  subject  does  not,  in  my  judgment,  warrant.  I  have,  in 
general,  often  with  no  little  sacrifice  of  taste  and  inclination,  avoided  quoting  texts  for 
which  there  is  but  one  authority ;  except  such  as  are  furnished  by  Miiller  and  Muir,  whose 
versions  have,  in  general,  been  adduced  without  hesitation.  Quotations  from  the  Vedas, 
in  popular  works  upon  ancient  religions,  must  be  received  with  great  caution,  being  often 
drawn,  without  investigation,  from  very  imperfect  versions.  No  one,  at  all  acquainted 
with  the  materials  now  on  our  hands,  would  quote  the  best  version  of  a  Rig  Veda  Hymn 
with  the  same  assurance  of  minute  accuracy  with  which  he  adduces  translations  from  the 


IOO  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

These  and  other  deities  are,  with  simple  confidence, 
invited  to  descend  and  recline  on  the  sacred 
Kusa  grass,  and  quaff  the  juice  of  a  moun- 
tain plant,1  expressed  in  a  mortar  or  between  stones, 
strained  through  a  goat's  hair  sieve  into  clarified  but- 
ter, and  sprinkled  on  the  grass.  Exhilarated  by  this 
draught  of  vital  juices,  they  are  nerved  to  supreme 
labors  in  behalf  of  their  worshippers.  Perhaps  the 
mingling  of  these  elements  symbolized  the  propaga- 
tion of  life  in  man  and  beast,  to  these  primitive  tribes 
doubtless  the  holiest  mystery  and  the  dearest  hope. 
And  this  beverage,  though  a  mild  acid  of  no  great 
potency,  was  thought  helpful  to  the  lyrical  powers  of 
the  psalmists  themselves.  "  Soma,  like  the  sea,  has 
poured  forth  thoughts  and  hymns  and  songs."2 

But  the  language  of  the  Hymns  to  Soma  shows  that 
its  virtue  was  associated  with  the  idea  of  new  and  purer 
life,  .given  through  voluntary  sacrifice.  The  sap  of 
the  mountain  plant,  slain  and  brayed  in  the  mortar, 
became  the  "all-purifier,  all-generator;  father  of  the 
gods;"  '" its  ocean  transcends  the  worlds,"  and  its 
filter  is  their  "support."3  Both  Soma  (Hindu)  and 
Haoma  (Persian)  are  "healers,  deliverers  from  pain." 
The  Sama  Veda  says  of  this  god,  that  he  "  submits  to 
mortal  birth,  and  is  bruised  and  afflicted  that  others 
maybe  saved."4  This  is  the  rudest  type  of  mediation 
through  sacrifice,  of  strength  through  weakness,  of 
life  through  death.  A  later  hymn  has  been  thought  to 
represent  the  Supreme  Spirit  as  sacrificing  himself,  to 
create  the  world.6 

Greek  or  Latin  classics.  Yet  the  path  through  this  difficult  literature  is  already  so  well 
cleared  that  we  need  not  misconceive  its  bearings  on  any  important  question  of  Comparative 
Religion. 

1  The  Asclepias  acida.  !  R.  V.,  IX.  96. 

8  See  texts  in  Muir,  vol.  iv.     Soma  means  "extract,'''  —  from  su,  to  express  or  beget. 

*  Stevenson's  Transl.  Pt.  II.,  x.  2,  6;  vi.  4.         6  R.  V.,  X.  Si.     But  see  Muir,  vol.  iv. 


THE    HYMNS.  1 01 

Here  surely  is  what  religion  and  philosophy  have 
been  wont  to  call  "  man  in  bonds  of  nature ;  " 
man  rudimentary,  instinctive,  absorbed  in 
material  objects,  "unaided  by  revelation,"  dependent 
on  what  comes  in  the  "  mere  "  structure  and  necessity 
of  his  faculties.  This  is  that  "natural  incapacity," 
which  is  believed  to  require  "  supernatural  grafting " 
in  order  to  the  generation  of  spiritual  truth.  And  yet 
what  do  we  find  here?  The  religious  sentiment  in- 
tensely active,  indeed  an  all-pervading  consciousness. 
These  Hymns  are  full  of  implicit  trust,  of  childlike 
awe.  They  are  addressed  to  deities,  not  arbitrarily 
fashioned  in  human  shape,  nor  out  of  any  material 
of  human  device,  nor  yet  enclosed  in  temples  made  by 
hands  ;  but  felt  directly  by  the  religious  instinct,  face 
to  face  with  nature.  It  was  not  a  sense  so  much  of 
diverse  deities,  as  of  dependence  and  divine  guardian- 
ship, and  even  of  a  closer  relation.  Prayers  -were 
espousals  with  deity,  and  the  very  car  itself  by  which 
the  blessing  descended.  They  even  "  uphold  the 
sky."  He  who  asked  devoutly,  received.  No  god 
could  resist  constancy  in  one's  prayer.  Whatsoever 
he  needed,  prayer  would  bring,  —  food,  healing, 
riches,  victory,  knowledge,  daily  protection.  Strong 
in  the  force  and  promise  of  nature,  the  instinct  knows 
no  distrust  of  itself  or  its  object.1  "  My  prayers  fly 
to  Him  who  is  seen  of  many,  as  herds  to  their  past- 
ure ; "  "  fly  upwards,  to  win  highest  good,  as  birds  to 
their  nest."2  "Indra,  preserver,  refuge,  leave  us  not 
subject  to  the  evil  disposed ;  let  not  the  secret  guilt  of 
men  harm  us  ;  be  with  us  when  afar,  be  with  us  when 
nigh ;  so  supported,  we  shall  not  fear.  We  have  no 
other  friend  but  thee,  no  other  happiness,  no  other 

1  R.  V.,  V.  44,  3.  2  Ibid.,   I.  25,  16,  4- 


102  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

father.  There  is  none  like  thee,  in  heaven  or  earth, 
O  mighty  One.  Give  us  understanding,  as  a  father 
his  sons :  let  not  the  wicked  tread  us  down.  Thine 
we  are,  we  who  go  on  our  way  upheld  by  thee." 
"Thou  whose  ears  hear  all  things,  keep  near  thee 
this  my  hymn."1  "Free  from  harm,  we  praise  boun- 
teous Vishnu  who  harmeth  none.  Listen,  O  self- 
moved  Deep,  to  our  early  hymn."2 

"  Agni,  guardian  of  the  dwelling,  observer  of  truth, 
remover  of  diseases,  ever-watchful,  and  provident  for 
us,  life-giver."  3  "  As  everlasting  beams  dwell  in  the 
Sun,  so  all  treasures  are  in  thee,  their  king."  "  Men 
find  thee  who  sing  the  words  made  in  their  hearts."4 
"  Day  after  day  we  approach  thee  with  reverence : 
take  us  into  thy  protection,  as  a  father  his  son  :  be 
ever  present  for  our  good."  "  Break  not  the  covenant 
with  our  fathers.  Decay  threatens  the  body  like  a 
cloud.  From  this  ill  be  my  guardian."  "  Thou  art 
like  a  trough  of  water  in  the  desert  to  the  man  who 
longs  for  thee."5  "  O  Agni,  in  thy  friendship  I  am  at 
home."6 

The  wise  Pushan  (food-giver)  is  invoked  to  continue 
the  protecting  care  he  bestowed  on  the  men  of  old.  — 
The  divine  Rivers,7  that  refresh  the  herds  with  their 
healing  streams,  are  invoked  to  grant  length  of  life. — 
The  Asvins  are  invoked  in  the  last  watches  of  night, 
as  doers  of  all  noble  and  generous  deeds,  to  break 
forth  in  the  dawn  with  their  wonder-works  of  restora- 

»  i?.  V.,  I.  ii,  2  ;  II.  32,  2 ;  VII.  32 ;  I.  10,  9.  2  Ibid.,  VIII.  25. 

3  Ibid.,  I.  12.  4  Ibid.,  I.  59,  3  ;  I.  60,  3. 

«  Ibid,  I.  1,  7.  9;  I-  71,  10;  X.  4,  1.  8  Ibid.,  V.  44,  14  (Miiller). 

7  Of  the  richly  watered  Panjab  they  might  well  have  been  the  gods.  In  the  Veda 
their  flowing  speeds  onward  the  hymn  and  rite.  More  than  thirty  streams  are  mentioned 
in  a  single  hymn.  "  0  Sindh,  the  rivers  bring  their  tributes  to  thee,  as  cows  their  milk  to 
the  milker ;  thou  movest,  like  a  king  extending  his  wings  for  battle,  at  the  head  of  thy  tem- 
pestuous waves." 


THE    HYMNS.  IO3 

tion  on  the  sick,  the  lame,  the  blind.  —  Parjanya, 
rain-giver,  is  invoked  to  "cry  aloud,  to  thunder,  to 
flood  the  earth  and  impregnate  it,  that  all  that  is  therein 
may  rejoice  and  be  glad." — The  love  of  Vishnu,  "the 
Preserver,"  1  "  embraces  all  mankind,"  an  "  unpreoccu- 
pied  love."2 

"May  the  opening  dawns,  the  swelling  streams,  the 
firm-set  hills,  the  ancestors  present  at  this  invocation, 
preserve  us  !  May  we  at  all  seasons  be  of  sound 
mind  ;  may  we  ever  behold  the  rising  sun."  "  Shine 
for  us  with  thy  best  rays,  thou  bright  Dawn,  lengthener 
of  life,  giver  of  food  and  wealth.  Drive  far  away  the 
unfriendly ;  make  our  pastures  wide,  give  us  safety. 
All  ye  divine  Ones,  protect  us  always."2 

These  are  not  the  prayers  of  slaves,  nor  even  of 
mere  suppliants.  They  incessantly  break  forth  into 
praises.  "O  Indra,  gladden  me!  Sharpen  my 
thought  like  a  knife's  edge ;  whatever  I,  longing 
for  thee,  now  utter,  do  thou  accept."3  A  poetic  enthu- 
siasm glows  in  these  earliest  matins  and  nocturns. 
They  exalt  the  splendors  of  the  Dawn  and  the  orderly 
paths  of  the  Night.  They  dwell  with  joyful  wonder 
on  the  changes  which  pass  over  the  sky  and  the  earth, 
tracing  step  by  step  the  marvellous  beneficence  that 
follows  the  paths  of  the  Light.  All  this  is  not  mere 
"meteorolatry."  Man  is  not  prostrate  here  before  the 
material  universe,  but  erect,  greeting  the  sublimity 
and  magnificence  of  nature  as  tokens  of  a  divine 
good-will.  The  sense  of  physical  dependence  is  con- 
stantly more  or  less  absorbed  in  the  delight  of  this 
recognition.  It  would  be  doing  great  injustice  to 
primitive  Aryan  piety  to  overlook  this  fine  freedom  of 

1  From  vis,  to  hold,  or  maintain. 

2  R.  V.,  I.  42,  5;  23,  18;  112;  V.  83;  VII.  100;  VI.  52,  4,  5;  VII.  77. 
*  Ibid.,  VI.  47,  10. 


IO4  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

the  imagination,  this  exultation  in  the  beauty  as  well 
as  the  bounty  of  the  visible  world,  and  the  proof  it 
affords  that  we  have  here  something  quite  other  than 
adoration  of  visible  things.  It  is  the  happy  sense  of 
harmony  with  the  universe,  a  healthful  confidence 
that  the  world  and  man  are  made  for  each  other,  that 
life  and  nature  mean  his  good.  "  Surya  has  produced 
the  heavens  and  earth,  beneficent  to  all :  from  the 
desire  to  benefit  men,  he  has  measured  out  the  worlds, 
with  their  undecaying  supports.  To  Him  we  render 
praises."  l 

The  rishis  were  "  associates  of  the  gods  ;  found  out 
Spontaneity  the  hidden  light,  and  brought  forth  the  dawn 
of  Song.  with  sincere  hymns."2  The  singers  "seek 
out  the  thousand-branched  mystery,  through  the  vis- 
ion of  their  hearts."3  Their  hymns  are  "of  kin  to 
the  god,  and  attract  his  heart;"4  for  "Agni  is  him- 
self a  poet.  "  5  The  "  thoughtful  gods  produce  these 
hymns." 6  The  rishis  "  prepare  the  hymn  with  the 
heart,  the  mind,  and  the  understanding."7  They 
"  fashion  it  as  a  skilful  workman  a  car ;  "  "  adorn  it 
as  a  beautiful  garment,  as  a  bride  for  her  husband."8 
They  "  generate  it  from  the  soul  as  rain  is  born  from 
a  cloud  ;  "  "  send  it  forth  from  the  soul,  as  wind  drives 
the  cloud ;  "  "  launch  it  with  praises,  as  a  ship  on  the 
sea."9 

These  rude  bards  have  not  analyzed  their  conscious- 
Delight  in  ness :  the  material  and  the  spiritual  are  still 
the  world,  blended  together  in  their  conceptions.  This 
is  not  the  anthropomorphism  which  we  find  in  the 
maturer  faith  of  the  Greek,  a  clear  full  disengagement 

»  R.  V.,  I.  160.  2  Ibid.,  VII.  76,  4.  s  Ibid.,  VII.  33,  9. 

4  Ibid.,  VIII.  12,  31  ;  13,  36.         6  Ibid.,  VI.  14,  2.  6  Ibid.,  X.  61,  7. 

1  Ibid.,  I.  61,  2:  8  Ibid.,  I.  130,  6;  V.  29,  15;  X.  39,14. 

9  Ibid.,  VII.  94;  I.  116;  X.  116.     See  Muir,  III.  220-240. 


THE    HYMNS.  IO5 

of  the  personal  deity  from  the  physical  element  or 
form  in  which  he  is  felt  to  be  present.  For  wonder 
and  awe  are  not  analyzers  nor  definers  of  thought : 
the  lines  between  infinite  and  finite,  man  and  nature, 
spirit  and  matter,  are  not  of  their  drawing.  But 
neither  is  this  Vedic  worship  the  mere  "  personification 
of  the  elements,"  the  mere  calling  the  thing  fire,  or 
cloud,  or  moon-plant,  a  god.  What  we  do  in  fact  note 
here,  in  the  not  yet  differentiated  instinct,  is  a  pre- 
dominance of  the  spiritual  element ;  and  this  not  only 
in  its  constant  recognition  of  intelligence  as  every- 
where the  substance  of  nature,  and  in  its  admira- 
tion of  conscious  energies  and  volitions, — mantra, 
the  prayer,  itself  meaning  thought, — but  even  more 
decisively  in  that  open  sense  of  beauty  and  hospi- 
tality, of  invitation  even,  in  life  and  the  world  to 
which  I  have  just  referred  ;  a  prelude,  we  may  call  it, 
to  the  aesthetic  grace  and  geniality  of  the  Greek.1 
It  is  indeed  what  Quinet  finely  declares  to  be  the 
meaning  of  the  whole  Vedic  religion,  — "Revelation 
by  Light." 

It  is  not  the  mere  worship  of  the  elements.  Bond- 
age to  the  senses  will  not  explain  this  spontaneity  and 
joy ;  these  cordial  relations  with  the  universe ;  this 
home-feeling  so  assured  and  fearless  as  to  permit 
undistracted  contemplation  and  living  praise  ;  this  cre- 
ative force  of  imagination  ;    this  feeling  of  beauty  and 


1  Very  close  affinities,  not  only  etymological,  but  profoundly  psychological  and  moral 
also,  have  been  traced  between  the  three  principal  divinities  of  the  Greeks,  — Zeus,  Diony- 
sus, and  Heracles,  —  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  three  Vedic  gods,  —  Indra,  Agni,  and 
Savitri,  —  on  the  other.  The  relations  between  the  gods  of  the  Veda  and  those  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  the  close  affinities  of  name  and  function,  pointing  to  a  common  origin,  are 
matters  of  literary  inquiry  which  lie  outside  the  direct  line  of  our  purpose.  They  will  be 
found  fully  treated  in  the  writings  of  Miiller ;  in  Lassen's  Indische  A  itertkumskunde, 
I.  756;  and  in  Mr.  Cox's  new  volumes  on  Aryan  Mythology  (1870).  Also  by  Neve, 
Slythe  ties  Ribkavas;  and  Pococke,  India  in  Greece. 


106  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

benignity,  in  full  play,  neither  repressed  by  fear,  nor 
enslaved  by  animal  instincts.  It  is  very  refreshing  to 
see  the  religious  sentiment  recognizing  the  aesthetic 
faculty,  the  guarantee  of  all  liberties,  and  pronounc- 
ing it  good,  in  the  morning  of  time.  It  was  a  great 
step  in  the  evolution  of  intellectual  life.  We  cannot 
be  inattentive  to  such  an  assertion  of  inherent  capaci- 
ties and  rights  of  the  soul. 

It  shows  us  in  the  infancy  of  Indo-European  de- 
velopment that  innate  disposition  to  accord  liberty 
to  every  faculty,  welcoming  all  to  their  own  several 
uses  and  delights,  and  accepting  the  world  as  their 
natural  furtherance  and  plastic  material,  which  has 
given  this  ethnic  family  the  leadership  of  intellectual 
progress  and  religious  freedom.  The  Vedic  Hymn 
is  the  primal  guarantee,  the  infantile  presage  of  these 
future  powers.  The  oldest  Greek .  sages,  like  the 
Vedic,  wrote  their  wisdom  under  poetic  inspiration  and 
in  verse.  Solon,  Thales,  and  the  rest,  were  called 
Sofhoi,  or  knowers ;  a  word  having  nearly  the  same 
meaning  with  the  word  "  rishis."  Their  cosmogonies, 
which  trace  all  things  to  fire,  or  water,  or  their  inter- 
mixture, are,  like  the  Vedic  faith,  no  mere  element- 
worship,  and  clearly  indicate  the  recognition  of  life 
and  mind  as  the  essence  of  these  outward  forms. 
This  is  the  characteristic  of  all  early  Aryan  thought. 

It  is  the  mind  of  a  child  that  we  are  exploring.  All 
aii  Reiig-  is  yet  indeterminate,  vague,  instinctive.  But 
g°"L!°  f°r  tnat  very  reason  we  can  the  better  recog- 
nize the  capacities  of  human  nature,  observing  the 
primitive  impulses  from  which  its  laws  of  growth  have 
evolved  such  diverse  forms  of  revelation  as  the  history 
of  religion  presents.  The  Veda  cannot  be  claimed 
exclusively   by    any    one    of    the    great    theological 


THE    HYMNS.  107 

systems,  — by  monotheism,  polytheism,  or  pantheism  ; 
but  it  contains  the  common  principle  of  them  all,  the 
germ,  of  which  the  highest  is  but  a  natural  develop- 
ment, —  the  consciousness  of  deity.1 

This  nebulous  universality  of  the  Rig  Veda,  this 
potentiality  of  all  religions,  this  prophetic  star-dust  of 
historic  systems,  may  well  enough  be  called  panthe- 
ism. Yet  in  no  exclusive  sense.  It  is  not  philosophi- 
cal abstraction,  but  intense  realization  :  it  is  man  wide 
awake  and  intent,  in  eye  and  ear,  and  to  the  very 
finger-tips.  It  is  the  rounding  continent  of  his  relig- 
ious instincts,  and  holds  a  wealth  of  imagination  that 
supplies  prototypes  for  the  mythologies  of  India, 
Persia,  Greece,  Italy,  Germany ;  and  a  geniality  in 
its  love  of  personification,  that  endowed  with  living 
sympathies  each  and  every  phase  of  the  elements, 
every  metamorphosis  of  fire,  and  the  very  sacrifices 
and  prayers  of  the  worshippers  themselves.2 

Its  polytheism,  like  its  pantheism,  is  in  the  free, 
plastic  stage,  and  clearly  discloses  its  depend-  Intuition  of 
ence  on  a  theistic  instinct,  deeper  than  itself,  the  °ne- 
in  the  constitution  of  man. 

I  do  not  intend  to  convey  the  idea  of  what  Miiller 
calls  a  "  monotheism  which  -precedes  the  polytheism 
of  the  Veda  ;  a  remembrance  of  One  God,  breaking 
through  the  mists  of  idolatrous  phraseology."  3  Such 
antecedent  revelation  does  not  appear  to    me  to  be 


1  There  is,  also,  a  hint  of  dualism  in  the  fact  that  twin  deities  are  often  invoked,  yet 
not  as  antagonistic.  Miiller,  Science  of  Language,  II.  585.  There  is  even  a  tendency  to 
triple  forms  of  deity,  pointing  to  later  conceptions  of  a  trinity. 

2  For  an  excellent  rhtiine  of  Vedic  worship,  as  regards  the  illustration  of  its  vigor  and 
wealth  of  imagination,  and  its  affinities  with  other  religions,  see  Alfred  Maury's  Croyances 
et  Lcge71d.es  de  PAntiguite.  On  the  personification  of  Soma,  the  sacrifice,  see  Muir's 
Sanskrit  Texts,  vol.  iv.,  and  Stevenson's  Sama  Veda.  Mr.  Fiske's  articles  on  My- 
thology, in  the  A  t/antic  Monthly,  trace  many  of  these  relations. 

8  Sanskrit  Literature,  p.  559. 


108  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

proved.  But  that  a  profound  theistic  instinct,  the 
intuition  of  a  divine  and  living  whole,  is  involved  in 
the  primitive  mental  processes  we  are  here  studying, 
I  hold  to  be  beyond  all  question. 

For  these  Hymns  are  in  reality  not  so  much  the 
worship  of  many  deities,  as  the  recognition  of  deity 
everywhere ;  the  upward  look  of  reverence,  wonder, 
gratitude,  and  trust,  from  hearts  to  which  all  aspects 
and  powers  of  nature  spoke  in  essentially  the  same  lan- 
guage. There  is  manifold  revelation  ;  but  there  is  also 
unity  of  impression.  The  response  to  these  divine  invi- 
tations takes  outwardly  different  directions,  is  addressed 
to  different  objects  ;  but  intrinsically  it  is  seeking  the 
same  spirit  in  all.  In  no  other  way  can  we  explain 
the  fact  that  these  Vedic  deities  are  in  no  essential 
respect  distinguishable  from  each  other.  It  is  not 
merely  that  they  are  mostly  forms  of  light  or  fire  : 
this  recognition  of  unity  in  the  symbol  points  back  to 
the  intuition  of  a  deeper  spiritual  and  moral  oneness.1 
They  are  all  described  in  the  same  way.  All  are  truth- 
ful, beneficent,  generous,  omniscient,  omnipotent.  All 
are  bestowers  of  life,  inspirers  of  knowledge.  They 
are  alike  the  refuge  of  men,  alike  immortal ;  creators 
and  measurers  of  the  world,  for  the  benefit  of  man; 
radiant  with  all-searching  light,  transcending  and 
pervading  all  worlds.  "  Among  you,  O  gods,  there  is 
none  that  is  small,  none  that  is  young :  you  are  all 
great  indeed."  They  have  all  equal  praise.  All  are 
invoked  for  the  same  blessings.  They  are  even  mu- 
tually interchangeable.      "Thou,  Agni,  art  Indra,  art 

1  Even  where  an  opposition  of  interests  is  for  a  moment  conceived,  as  where  Indra  is 
supposed  to  contend  with  the  Maruts  about  their  respective  rights,  this  is  but  in  order  to 
reassert  the  unity  of  divine  interests  more  positively.  "The  Maruts,  O  Indra,  are  thy 
brechren."  R.  V.,  I.  170,  2.  See  Roth's  translation  of  I.  165,  in  Zeitschr.  d.  D.  M.  G., 
XXIV  p.  302. 


THE    HYMNS.  IO9 

Vishnu,  art  Brahmanaspati."  "Thou,  Agni,  art  born 
Varuna ;  becomest  Mitra  when  kindled  :  in  thee,  son 
of  strength,  are  all  the  gods."  And  all  alike  are 
supreme.  Soma,  the  sacrificial  plant,  itself  "  generates 
all  the  gods,  and  upholds  the  worlds."  i  The  fact  now 
before  us  has  been  admirably  stated  by  Muller.  "  Each 
god  is  to  the  mind  of  the  suppliant  as  good  as  all  the 
gods.  He  is  felt  at  the  time  as  supreme  and  absolute, 
in  spite  of  the  necessary  limitations  which  to  our 
minds  a  plurality  of  gods  must  entail  on  every  single 
god."  2  And  the  reason  of  this  can  only  be  that,  in 
all  these  diverse  directions,  the  act  of  zuorshi-p  was 
essentially  one  and  the  same,  and  gave  its  own  bound- 
less meaning  to  all  its  instruments,  forms,  and  objects. 
A  like  assignment  of  equal  and  supreme  authority  to 
many  different  deities  is  found  also  in  Egyptian  poly- 
theism ;  and  the  trait  has  in  this  case  been  admitted  to 
indicate  an  approximation  to  belief  in  the  Unity  of 
God,  even  by  those  who  can  find  no  other  evidence 
of  the  theistic  bearings  of  that  primeval  faith.3  The 
same  fact  has  been  noted  in  respect  to  the  names 
applied  to  their  deities  by  the  North  American  tribes, 
such  as,  "  Maker  of  all,"  "  Father  and  Mother  of  Life," 
"One  perfect  God,"  "endless,"  "omnipotent,"  "invisi- 
ble," and  the  like;  all  of  which,  according  to  the 
latest  and  best  researches  on  the  myths  of  the  New 
World,  were  familiar  terms  of  homage  for  what  was 
felt  to  be  higher  than  man,  and  clearly  indicate  a 
"  monotheism    which    is    ever    present,   not    in    con- 

1  R.  V.,  VII.  30,  1 ;  II.  1,  3 ;  V.  3,  1  ;   IX.  86,  89,  109. 

2  Ancient  Sanskrit  Literature,  p.  532.  Muller's  fine  spiritual  instinct  and  profound 
acquaintance  with  the  original  text  of  the  Vedas  combine  to  make  him,  on  the  whole,  our 
best  authority  for  their  verbal  meaning.  • 

3  Kenrick's  Aticient  Egypt,  I.  367. 


IIO  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

trast  to  polytheism,  but  in  living  intuition,  in  the 
religious  sentiments."1 

It  is  impossible  not  to  discern  in  the  Vedic  passages 
which  have  been  quoted,  and  indeed  in  Vedic  forms 
of  worship  generally,  the  presentiment  of  that  pro- 
found unity  into  which  the  wisest  pupils  of  ancient 
polytheism  resolved  the  gods  of  their  fathers,  and 
which  Maximus  Tyrius  expresses  in  terms  that  strik- 
ingly recall  our  Vedic  texts.  "  Men  make  distinctions 
between  the  gods.  They  are  not  aware  that  all  the  gods 
have  one  law,  one  life,  the  same  ways,  not  diverse  nor 
mutually  hostile ;  all  rule ;  all  are  of  the  same  age ; 
all  pursue  our  good ;  all  have  the  same  dignity  and 
authority;  all  are  immortal;  one  their  nature,  under 
many  names."  2  And  as  the  Greek  philosopher,  so 
also  the  Vedic  seer  was  conscious  of  a  still  deeper 
unity  than  this. 

In  these  vague  embodiments  of  religious  wonder 
and  awe,  there  could  be  none  of  that  distinct- 

Mystical 

sense  of  ness  of  individuality  which  later  and  more  re- 
flective polytheism  gave  to  its  separate  deities. 
Doubtless  many  Vedic  terms  translated  as  proper 
names  were  really  meant  as  appellatives  only,  or  else 
record  natural  facts  which  were  not  intended  to  be 
personified  at  all,  so  that  our  ignorance  of  their  mean- 
ing may  have  greatly  multiplied  the  distinct  figures 
of  this  older  Olympus,  as  well  as  exaggerated  their 
distinctness.  Miiller  has  called  attention  to  a 
striking  difference  between  the  Semitic  and  Aryan 
languages,  in  the  tendency  to  invite  polytheistic  dis- 
tinctions. In  the  former,  the  original  root-name 
always  remains  unaltered  in   the  body  of  any  word 

»  Brinton,  p.  58.  2  Diss.,  XXXIX.  5. 


THE    HYMNS.  Ill 

that  may  be  formed  from  it ;  while  in  the  latter  it  is 
merged  and  lost  in  each  fresh  combination,  so  that 
every  new  appellative  tends  to  independent  meaning, 
and  starts  a  special  personality.  That  these  linguistic 
peculiarities  explain  the  intenser  monotheism  of  the 
one  race,  and  the  freer  polytheism  of  the  other,  seems, 
however,  to  be  less  conceivable  than  that  both  the 
linguistic  and  the  religious  differences  arise  from  a 
common  cause  in  the  constitutional  unlikeness  of 
the  two  races.  Yet  the  influence  of  the  transform- 
ing process  alluded  to  must  have  been  very  great. 
And  we  can  infer,  even  from  the  Veda,  how  this 
multiplication  of  individual  deities  must  have  gone  on 
in  the  Aryan  religions,  by  the  change  of  mere  appel- 
latives into  personal  forms  of  deity.  Thus  a  great 
many  names  to  which  prayers  are  addressed  are 
simply  expressions  of  qualities  that  were,  undoubtedly, 
first  attributed  to  the  Sun,  and  became  distinctive 
through  the  linguistic  obscuration  described  above ; 
until  Macrobius  could  find  ready  to  hand  quite  ample 
materials  for  proving  his  great  thesis,  so  often  repro- 
duced, that  all  ancient  worship  was  resolvable  into 
heliolatry  alone. 

But  at  so  early  a  stage  in  the  observation  of  nature 
as  that  of  the  Vedas,  even  this  process  could  hardly 
have  had  time  to  produce  very  clearly  marked  dis- 
tinctions of  personality  in  the  objects  of  worship. 

Those  mysterious  forms  and  processes  of  Light, 
to  which  diverse  names  were  attached,  really  flowed 
into  one  another ;  sometimes  by  imperceptible  grada- 
tions, sometimes  by  instantaneous  shift,  as  of  feeling 
or  mood.  Whether  the  face  of  the  universe  changed 
before  the  eyes  of  the  worshipper,  or  showed  behind 
the  change  an  ever-abiding  heaven  and  earth,  it  was 


112  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

still  the  same  face  of  the  universe,  and  power  could 
not  be  definitely  held  apart  from  power.  The  senti- 
ment of  worship,  too,  was  ever  the  same,  whithersoever 
it^  turned  for  the  moment,  to  every  name  going  forth 
in  the  same  yearning  and  faith.  It  was  natural  that 
in  every  moment  of  deeper  thought  the  poet  should 
pronounce  these  names  interchangeably.  It  was  not 
their  individuality  that  impressed  him,  but  the  common 
fact  of  their  power.  He  would  instinctively  feel  that 
unity  which  these  experiences  suggested.  It  was  the 
perpetual  need  to  find  for  every  act  of  prayer  and  praise 
the  highest  possible  object  of  prayer  and  praise,  which 
caused  him  perpetually  to  regard  that  deity  as  su- 
preme to  whom  he  was  for  the  moment  addressing  his 
thought.  This  is  the  very  germinal  principle  of 
Theism;  for  it  is  the  instinct  of  undivided  homage. 
And  if  this  claim  to  hold  communion  in  every  act 
of  worship  with  the  highest  sovereignty  nevertheless 
allows  many  different  powers  successively  to  appear 
as  highest,  if  *it  does  not  yet  draw  the  logical  inference 
that  the  object  of  such  aspiration  can  only  be  unity,  it 
is  simply  because  the  mind  is  not  yet  introversive 
enough  to  recognize  what  is  really  involved  in  this 
spiritual  process.  It  can  require  no  aid  from  "  super- 
natural intervention,"  whatever  that  may  mean,  to  ad- 
vance to  the  perception  that  supreme  sovereignty  cannot 
be  divided  among  many.  Given  the  impulse  to  rise  in 
every  act  of  worship  to  the  highest  known  conception 
of  the  Divine^  there  can  be  need  only  of  a  deeper 
absorption  in  some  one  tribal  deity,  as  with  the  Hebrew 
prophet,  or  a  finer  speculative  habit,  as  with  the  Greek 
philosopher,  to  develop  it  into  a  clear  and  positive 
form  of  Theism. 

It  was  not  requisite  that  some  special  race  should 


THE    HYMNS.  II3 

be  "  supernaturally  "  gifted  with  the  vision,  and  "in- 
trusted with  the  charge "  of  this  indefeasible  truth, 
that  Deity  is  One.  It  was  requisite  only  that  the 
religious  consciousness  of  man  should  become  in- 
tently concentrated  upon  its  own  deeps.  Greek, 
Roman,  and  Oriental  literature,  as  well  as  Hebrew, 
show  that  this  was  the  experience  of  all  thoughtful 
minds  long  before  the  Christian  era. 

The  whole  Veda  hovers  on  the  verge  of  this  higher 
experience.  Its  free  devotion,  guided  like  the  wild 
fowl's  flight  by  the  mysterious  instinct  of  natural 
desire,  steeps  unwearied  wings  from  time  to  time  in 
this  purer  light.  There  are  hints  of  a  Father  of  all 
the  gods,  in  Dyaushpitar ; J  of  a  Lord  of  Creation, 
Prajapati ;  of  a  generator  and  lord  of  all  Prayer, 
Brahmanaspati.2  Visvakarman  is  "wise  and  pervad- 
ing,'creator,  disposer,  father,  highest  object  of  vision."3 
Varuna  is  "King  of  all,  both  gods  and  men."4  Surya 
is  the  concentration  of  all  powers  in  one  ;  "the  wonder- 
ful host  of  rays,"  the  "eye  of  Mitra,  Varuna,  Agni;w 
"soul  of  all  that  moves  or  rests."5  "Indra  contains 
all  the  gods,  as  the  felloe  of  a  wheel  surrounds  the 
spokes." 6 

Even  so  is  this  whole  religion  contained  in  the  ado- 
ration of  Light ;  in  the  sense  of  a  vital  fire  in  the  Uni- 
verse, one  with  the  life  that  stirred  within  the  soul ;  in 
the  search  for  this  through  all  disguises,  and  the  recog- 
nition of  it  in  all  visible  powers.  The  Gdyatri,  or 
holiest  verse  of  the  Veda,  reads:  "We  meditate  on 
that  desirable  light  of  the  divine  Savitri,  the  Sun  who 
governs  our  holy  rites."7     It  was  this  verse  which  the 

1  Zrt'f  TraTT/p,  Jupiter.  a.  J?.  V.,  I.  40,  5  ;  II.  23,  1 ;  24,  5  ;  23,  5. 

s  Ibid.,  X.  82,  1.  «  Ibid.,  II.  27,  10.  6  ibid.,  I.  us,  1. 

•  Ibid.,  I.  32,  15.  1  Ibid.,  III.  62,  10. 

8 


114  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

later  worship  affirmed  to  have  been  milked  out  by 
Brahma  as  the  substance  of  the  Veda,  and  "to  con- 
tain all  the  gods,"  being  interpreted  with  the  largest 
freedom  of  spiritual  meaning. 

The  Veda  goes  beyond  these  vague  intimations.  It 
distinctly  announces  the  unity  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment, and  anticipates  philosophy  in  referring  mono- 
theism and  polytheism  to  a  common  root.  "That 
which  is  One  the  wise  call  many  ways.  They  call 
it  Indra,  Mitra,  Varuna,  Agni,  the  winged  heavenly 
Garutmat."  l 

In  the  light  of  this  mystical  instinct,  which  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  pervades  every  Vedic  Hymn, 
we  must  interpret  the  fact  that  all  these,  so-called, 
nature  -  gods  are  freely  declared  creators  of  the 
world.  It  even  concentrates  the  whole  of  this  tran- 
scendence within  each  in  turn  with  such  intensity' and 
fulness  as  makes  the  personality  of  the  Vedic  God  as 
vivid  and  absolute  as  that  of  the  Hebrew.  There  are 
abundant  passages  descriptive  of  the  all-creative  and 
all-mastering  energy  of  Indra,  in  which  it  seems  as  if 
we  were  listening  to  the  praise  of  Jehovah  from  a 
Hebrew  Psalmist.  Nor  is  the  spirituality  of  deity 
much  more  obscured  by  outward  and  sensuous  ima- 
gery in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other. 

"To  Indra  the  heavens  and  earth  bow  down.  With 
his  thunderbolt  he  looses  the  waters.  At  his  might 
the  mountains  are  afraid.  He  established  the  quiver- 
ing earth  ;  he  propped  up  the  sky  for  the  good  of  all 
creatures,  upholding  the  sky  with  its  golden  lights  in 
void  space ;  he  spread  also  the  green  earth.     Let  us 

1  J?.  V.,  I.  164,  46.  There  are  similar  hymns  to  Osiris,  in  which  he  is  identified  with  other 
Egyptian  deities.  — Rev  Archeologique,  1857.  The  Book  of  the  Dead  gives  him  a  hun- 
dred appellations.  So  the  Greek  Zeus  absorbed  almost  every  name  dear  to  popular  faith. 
See  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  I.  555. 


THE    HYMNS.  115 

worship  him  with  reverence,  the  exalted,  the  undeca}r- 
ing,  the  ever  young.  The  worlds  have  not  measured 
his  greatness.  Many  his  excellent  works  :  not  all  the 
gods  can  frustrate  the  counsels  of  Him  who  established 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  produced  the  sun  and 
the  dawn.  He  transcends  the  whole  universe  ;  archi- 
tect of  all  things  and  lord  of  all."1 

Yet  even  of  this  Supreme  Aryan  Jehovah  it  is  said 
elsewhere  that  "  a  divine  and  gracious  mother    . 

b  Birth  and 

bore  him,  when  like  the  dawn  he  filled  the  parentage  of 
worlds."  2    And  he  is  not  only  undecaying,  and  deity" 
adored  of  old,  but  "for  ever  young." 

And  when  the  poets  turn  to  Savitri,  or  to  Soma,  or 
to  Agni,  there  is  not  only  the  same  vividness  in  the 
description  of  sovereign  power,  but  the  same  recur- 
rence to  this  limiting  fact  of  birth  and  beginning. 
How  shall  this  be  explained? 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that,  after  all,  the  Vedic 
Hymns  belong  to  different  epochs,  and  must  represent 
many  changes  in  the  special  ideal  associated  with  each 
of  the  gods  ;  and  that  every  fresh  form  would  natu- 
rally be  held  the  offspring  of  the  last.  Doubtless,  too, 
these  images  of  birth  and  youth  in  part  refer  to  natural 
transitions  or  phases  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  visi- 
ble symbols  of  deity ;  and  report  the  ever-fresh  pro- 
ductive vigor  of  their  outgoings  and  renewals.  They 
are  indeed  the  natural  play  of  the  poetic  faculty,  which 
recognizes  the  life  of  the  universe  as  for  ever  new,  and 
creation  as  an  instant  fact,  —  long  before  science  learns 
to  find  the  same  significance  in  natural  laws. 

But  the  root  of  the  idea  that  the  gods  are  subject  to 
birth  and  parentage  probably  lies  deeper.     While  the 

1  Other  examples  may  be  found  in  Maury,  Ligendes  et  Craya/ices,  from  Langlois. 
See  texts  in  Muir,  vol.  iv. 

2  R.  V.,  X.  134,  1.     Sa>na,Pt.ll.  vii.  16. 


Il6  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

religious  imagination  was  busied  with  bringing  out  the 
sense  of  deity  in  ever-changing  forms,  there  was  natu- 
rally as  constant  a  sense  of  the  limitations  in  which 
these  definite  deities  were  involved.  None  of  them 
could  satisfy  the  thirst  to  reach  the  origin  of  power. 
These  creators  are  but  outbirths  of  what  went  before. 
They  are  "  young ; "  and  the  ancient  deep  is  behind 
them.  The  eye  still  pierces,  the  soul  presses,  beyond 
them,  and  finds  no  end  to  the  series.  "A  divine 
mother  bore  them."  What  is  this  but  to  say,  "  God  is, 
after  all,  beyond  all  our  gods  "  ? 

Is  science  any  wiser  than  song?  In  protoplasm,  or 
elsewhere,  has  it  ever  found  us  a  beginning?  What 
else  does  the  Vedic  faith  in  birth  and  parentage  of 
deity,  but  foreshadow  this  endless  inadequacy,  and  in 
the  tenderest  way?  It  finds  rest  by  resolving  its  series 
of  divine  powers  into  syllables  of  a  word  whose  mean- 
ing for  the  heart  was  not  to  be  fathomed,  a  life  which 
only  the  sacred  name  of  motherhood  could  express. 

This  unfathomed  background  of  life,  out  of  which 
The  depth  each  and  every  god  was  born,  must  have 
of  Deity,  haunted  the  religious  consciousness  as  a  con- 
stant suggestion  of  unity  beyond  all  these  changing 
forms.  But  it  was  a  unity,  which  so  far  from  insist- 
ing on  being  represented  in  one  way  only,  inspired 
men  with  the  intensest  desire  to  multiply  forms  and 
symbols  of  it.  And  this  diversity,  bearing  witness 
of  its  productive  resources,  must  have  prompted  it, 
in  turn,  to  seek  ever  more  and  more  stars  in  this 
all-enfolding  depth  of  spiritual  space,  which  shut 
no  doors  of  dogma,  and  spread  no  mythic  firma- 
ment to  stay  the  wings  of  thought.  The  religious 
imagination  was  not  only  left  free,  but  invited  to  in- 
cessant creation  of  mythical  names  and  forms,  ever 


THE    HYMNS.  1 1 7 

promising  to  embody  more  and  more  fully  the  un- 
mortgaged ideal  that  welcomed  them  all.  Here  was 
an  open  path  for  progress,  so  far  as  progress  depends 
on  religious  forces.  This  made  the  old  Aryan  my- 
thologies so  rich  and  full.  It  was  in  this  way  that 
polytheism,  free  from  the  exclusiveness  that  besets 
strictly  monotheistic  conceptions,  became  the  real 
parent  of  aesthetic  and  scientific  liberty. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  all  these  definite  conceptions 
of  deity  are  interfused  with  a  sense  of  man's 

•  7  it  Recogni- 

harmomous  relation  to  what  lies  beyond  all  tionofthe 
conception.1     And  of  the  spiritual  content  and  Infinite- 
confidence  hereby  made  possible,  we  may  cite  in  illus- 
tration, first,  a  hymn  to  Hiranyagarbha,  or  the  Light 
as  embryo,  born  in  the  waters. 

I.  "  In  the  beginning  there  arose  the  source  of  golden  light.  He 
was  the  only  born  Lord  of  all  that  is.  He  established  the  earth  and 
the  sky.     Who  is  the  God 2  to  whom  we  shall  offer  our  sacrifice  ? 

2  "  He  who  gives  life  ;  he  who  gives  strength ;  whose  blessing 
all  the  bright  gods  desire  ;  whose  shadow  is  immortality,  whose 
shadow  is  death.     Who  is  the  God,  &c.  ? 

3.  "  He  who  through  his  power  is  the  only  King  of  this  breathing 
and  awakening  world  ;  he  who  governs  man  and  beast.     Who,  &c.  ? 

4.  "  He  through  whom  the  sky  is  bright  and  the  earth  firm  ;  who 
measured  out  the  light  in  the  air.     Who  is,  &c.  ? 

5.  "  He  to  whom  heaven  and  earth,  standing  firm  by  his  will,  look 
up,  trembling  inwardly.  He  over  whom  the  rising  sun  shines  forth. 
Who  is,  &c.  ? 

6.  "  Wherever  the  mighty  water-clouds  went,  where  they  placed 
the  seed  and  lit  the  fire,  thence  arose  He  who  is  the  only  life  of 
the  bright  gods.     Who  is,  &c.  ? 

7.  "  He  who  by  his  might  looked  even  over  the  water-clouds,  the 
clouds  which  gave  strength  and  lit  the  sacrifice.  He  who  is  God 
above  all  gods.     Who  is,  &c.  ? 

1  I  do  not  here  employ  the  term  "  unknowable,"  which,  as  used  in  scientific  parlance, 
does  not  convey  my  meaning. 

2  Langlois  translates  it,  "  To  what  other  god." 


Il8  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

8.  "May  he  not  destroy1  us.  He  the  Creator  of  the  earth,  the 
righteous,  who  created  the  heavens.  He  who  also  created  the 
bright  and  mighty  waters.  Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we  shall  offer 
our  sacrifice  ? " 2 

Who  is  this  that  is  "born  in  the  waters,"  an  "embryo 
of  light "  ?  Even  He  of  whom  the  waters  and  the 
light  are  but  the  garment,  "the  only  life  of  all  these 
bright  gods  ;  "  their  life,  not  apart  from  them  only,  but 
in  them.3 

And  here  is  a  farther  venture  into  those  abysses  of 
the  consciousness,  where  finite  so  blends  with  infinite, 
that  its  very  darkness  deepens  into  light ;  where 
deity,  felt  as  mystery  beyond  all  names  or  forms  of 
conception,  yet  is  also  highest  personality  and  instant 
life  of  all. 

1.  "There  was  then  neither  nonentity  nor  entity;  neither  atmos- 
phere nor  sky  beyond.     What  covered  all  ? 

2.  "  Death  was  not,  nor  therefore  immortality  ;  nor  day  nor  night. 
That  One  breathed,  breathless,  by  Itself  [in  essence] :  there  was  [or 
has  been]  nothing  different  from  It,  nor  beyond  It. 

3.  "  The  covered  germ  burst  forth  by  mental  heat. 

4.  "  Then  first  came  Love  upon  it,  the  spring  of  mind.  This  the 
poets  in  their  hearts  discerned,  the  bond  between  being  and  nought. 

5.  "The  ray  which  shot  across  these,  was  it  above  or  below? 
There  were  mighty  productive  powers,  nature  beneath  and  energy 
above. 

6.  "  Who  can  declare  whence  this  creation  ?    The  gods  came  later. 

7.  "  Who  then  knows  what  its  source,  or  whether  created  or  not  ? 
He  who  rules  it  in  highest  heaven  knows,  or  He  knows  not."4 

And  in  the  following  passages  we  mark  the  pro- 


1  "  Injure,"  according  to  Muir. 

2  R.  y.,\.  121.  Miiller's  transl.  is  in  Sansk.  Lit  ,  p.  569.  Muir's,  in  Sansk.  Texts, 
vol.  iv.,  is  essentially  the  same. 

8  Of  the  monotheism  of  the  Hindus,  recurring  at  every  stage  of  their  history,  and  its 
independence  of  foreign  influences,  see  Lassen,  II.  1105. 

4  R.  V.,  X.  129,  translated  by  Muller  and  Muir.  Colebrooke  translates  the  last  clause, 
"none  other  can  know." 


THE    HYMNS.  II9 

found  yearning  to  transcend  that  imperfect  solution  of 
the  mystery  of  existence  which  ascribes  it  to  Beyond  cre- 
a  special  creative  fiat :  —  ative  p°wer- 

"  That  which  is  beyond  the  earth  and  sky,  beyond  gods  and  spirits  ; 
what  earliest  embryo  did  the  waters  hold,  in  which  all  the  gods 
were  assembled  ?  Ye  know  not  Him  who  produced  these  things. 
Something  else  is  within  you.  The  chanters  of  hymns  go  about 
enveloped  in  mist,  and  unsatisfied  with  idle  talk.1 

"  Who  has  seen  the  First  Born  ?  Where  was  the  life,  the  blood, 
the  soul  of  the  world  ?     Who  went  to  ask  it  of  any  that  knew  it.2 

"  What  the  tree  from  which  they  shaped  heaven  and  earth  ?  Wise 
men,  ask  indeed,  in  your  minds,  on  what  He  stood  when  He  held 
the  worlds." 3 

It  is  the  inadequacy  of  all  conceptions  of  Original 
Cause  as  a  definite  form  of  existence  that  one  of  these 
poets  would  express  when  he  says,  "The  existent 
sprang  from  that  which  exists  not."4 

There  is  but  one  solution  of  these  mysteries,  and 
that  is  for  all  time  :  the  unity  of  human  and  divine 
through  the  moral  being. 

Every  one  of  these  Vedic  deities  is  a  moral  guar- 
dian and  saviour.  "This  day,  ye  gods,  with  The  moral 
the  rising  sun,  deliver  us  from  sin."     "What-  f™eatia 

0  Vedic  wor- 

ever  sin  we  may  have  committed,  O  Indra,  let  ship. 
us  obtain  the  safe  light  of  day  :  let  not  the  long  dark- 
ness come  upon  us."  "Preserve  us,  O  Agni,  by 
knowledge,  from  sin ;  and  lift  us  up,  for  our  work  and 
for  our  life."  "Thou  leadest  the  man  who  has  followed 
wrong  paths  to  acts  of  wisdom."  "  Deliver  us  from 
evil "  is  the  constantly  recurring  prayer.5 

"The  gods  are  not  to  be  trifled  with."  "They  are 
with  the  righteous  :  they  know  man  in  their  hearts." 

1  R.  V.,  X.  82.  *  Ibid.,  I.  164,  4-  8  Ibid.,  X.  81,  4.  *  Ibid.,  X.  72,  2. 

6  Ibid.,  I.  us,  6;  II.  27,  14;  I.  36,  14;  I.  35. 


120  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

"They  behold  all  things,  and  hear  no  prayers  of  the 
wicked."  "May  I,  free  from  sin,  propitiate  Rudra, 
so  as  to  attain  his  felicity,  as  one  distressed  by  heat 
finds  relief  in  the  shade  !  "  "I  have  committed  many 
faults,  which  do  ye,  O  gods,  correct,  as  a  father  his 
ill-behaving  son.  Far  from  me  be  bonds,  far  be  sins." 
"May  our  sins  be  removed,"  or  "repented  of"  is  the 
burden  of  a  whole  hymn.1  What  rude  tribes,  unused 
to  self-examination,  may  have  meant  by  the  terms  here 
translated  "  sinning "  and  "  repenting,"  may  not  be 
easy  fully  to  determine.  We  may  readily  overesti- 
mate their  moral  aspirations.  But  we  shall  err  even 
more  seriously  if  we  recognize  in  their  hymns  nothing 
better  than  the  desire  to  buy  material  advantages  from 
their  deities,  or  the  fear  of  losing  these  advantages,  or 
of  suffering  outward  penalties  at  their  hands.2  It  is 
very  clearly  a  sense  of  wrong-doing  from  which  the 
worshipper  is  seeking  relief.  It  is  conscience  that 
pricks  him,  the  rebuke  of  his  moral  ideal.  Because 
the  evil  he  thinks  or  does  offends  himself,  therefoi-e 
he  holds  it  an  offence  to  the  All-discerning.  Its  penal- 
ties, whether  inward  distress  or  outward  failure  and 
loss,  —  and  both  kinds,  as  will  hereafter  be  noticed, 
are  confessed,  —  he  construes  as  signs  of  its  opposi- 
tion to  a  rectitude  to  which  he  aspires.  It  is  purity 
of  heart,  it  is  peace  with  the  conscience,  that  these 
prayers  pursue.  Their  simple  confessions  of  weak- 
ness and  ignorance  are  laden  with  earnest  feeling. 
"  I  do  not  recognize  if  I  am  like  this :  I  go  on  per- 
plexed in  mind."3  "  O  Agni,  thou  art  like  a  trough  in 
the  desert,  to  one  who  longs  for  thee."4 

»  R.  J'.,  VII.  32,  9!  VIII.  i3>  I5;  H.33,6;  11.24,5;  1-97- 

2  For  this  kind  of  criticism,  see  Hardwick,  Christ  and  other  Masters,  I.  182,  and  even 
Wilson's  Lectrtres  at  Oxford (1840),  p.  9,  10. 

3  R.  V.,  I.  164,  37.  «  Ibid.,  X.  4,  1. 


THE    HYMNS.  121 

The  moral  law  is  eminently  embodied  in  Varuna. 
His  name,  kindred  with  the  Greek  Ouranos  vamnajthe 
and  the  Zend  Varena  —  from  var,  to  veil  or moral  Bmit- 
surround  —  remands  us  to  the  outermost  confines  of 
the  universe.1  He  is  essentially  the  Limit,  which  en- 
folds the  thought  of  these  simple  natures,  and  protects 
it  from  being  bewildered  and  oppressed  by  the  myste- 
ries of  immensity.  He  is  the  measurer  of  depths, 
whose  wise  ordinances  round  them  in.  His  world  is 
farthest  space.  His  calm  unswerving  legislation  is 
the  safety  of  all  beings  and  forms.2  His  worship  ex- 
presses man's  instinctive  sense  of  natural  law,  of  the 
bands  that  cannot  be  loosed.  He  is  adored  as  framer 
and  sustainer  of  the  everlasting  order  of  the  world ; 
who  appointed  the  broad  paths  of  the  sun,  prepared 
from  of  old,  free  from  dust,  well-placed  in  the  firma- 
ment ;  who  holds  the  stars  from  wandering,  and  keeps 
the  streams  from  overfilling  the  sea.  "The  constella- 
tions, visible  by  night,  which  go  elsewhere  by  day, 
are  his  inviolable  works."  "  Wise  and  mighty  are  his 
deeds  who  has  stemmed  asunder  the  wide  firmaments. 
He  lifted  on  high  the  bright  •  heavens  :  He  stretched 
apart  the  starry  sky  and  the  earth,  and  made  great 
channels  for  the  days."3  He  is  calm  and  immovable, 
the  Aryan  Fate:  inevitable  things  are  "his  bonds."4 
Night,  with  its  mysterious  deeps  and  steadfast  orderly 
watches,  is  his  special  realm ;  and  he  it  is  who  brings 
back  the  sun  to  his  place,  to  reappear  after  passing 
invisibly  through  the  heavens.  Thus  the  world  was  ' 
instinctively  felt  to  be  stanch  with  orderly  cycles,  long 
before  the  conception  of  law  could  be  fully  formed. 

1  Lassen,  I.  758. 

2  R-  K->  VIIL  42-  s  ibid.,  V.  85 ;  VII.  86,  87 :  I.  24,  10. 

♦  Roth,  Die  hochsten  Getter  d.  Arischen  Vdlker  {Zeitschrift  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl. 
Geselisch.,  VI.  72). 


122  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

But  in  this  physical  order  was  reflected  also  the 
divine  law  which  shone  in  the  conscience,  and  pro- 
claimed eternal  decree  against  moral  disobedience. 
"  By  day,  by  night,  there  is  said  one  thing.  The 
same  is  spoken  to  me  by  my  own  conscious  heart."1 
This  unseen  Eye  of  the  Night  "  beholds  all  that  has 
been  and  all  that  will  be  done."2  To  Varuna  the 
darkness  shineth  as  the  light.  It  is  he  who  is  of- 
fended at  the  evil-doer,  who  is  satisfied  only  when  the 
sin  is  put  away.  "  Desirous  of  beholding  thee,  I 
ask  what  is  my  offence."3  A  later  hymn  from  the 
Atharva  Veda  says  of  him,  "  If  one  stand  or  walk, 
or  hide,  the  great  Lord  sees  as  if  near ;  he  knows 
what  two  whisper  together ;  he  is  there  the  third. 
He  who  should  flee  beyond  the  sky  would  not  escape 
Varuna.  He  hath  counted  the  twinklings  of  the  eyes 
of  men."4 

He  is  "  merciful  to  the  evil-doer,  and  takes  away 
Deliverer  sm>  extricating  man  from  its  bonds."5  This 
from  evil,  morality  is  plainly  not  the  bondage  of  an  in- 
exorable physical  necessity,  nor  the  blind  fear  of  a 
wrathful  judge.  It  has  sight  of  a  divine  compassion, 
that  spares  and  restores. 

i.  "  Let  me  not  yet,  O  Varuna,  enter  into  the  house  of  clay. 
Have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

2.  "  If  I  go  along,  trembling,  like  a  cloud  driven  by  wind,  have 
mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

3.  "  Through  want  of  strength,  thou  Strong  One,  have  I  gone  to 
the  wrong  shore.     Have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy ! 

4.  "  Thirst  came  on  the  worshipper,  in  the  midst  of  the  waters. 
Have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy  ! 

5.  "  Wherever  we  men,  O  Varuna,  commit  an  offence  before  the 

1  R.  V.,  I.  24,  12.  2  Ibid.,  I.  25,  11.  s  ibid.,  VII.  86. 

«  Muir,  V.  p.  53  ;  Muller,  Chips,  I.  p.  41.  B  R.  K,  VII.  87;  I.  25,  21. 


THE    HYMNS.  1 23 

heavenly  host ;  wherever  we  break  thy  law  through  thoughtlessness, 
have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy  !  "  ' 

Similar  trust  in  forgiving  love  inspires  the  prayers 
to  all  the  Vedic  gods.  They  are  all  called  by  the 
names  Saviour  and  Father. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  we  look  in  vain  in  the  Vedas 
for  penitential  psalms,  or  hymns  commemorat-  . 

1  A  •*  Aryan  sense 

ing  the  descent  of  spiritual  benefits."2  This  of  moral 
is  true  only  if  we  take  these  expressions  in  e^ 
their  Semitic  meaning.  In  most  Hebrew  piety,  the 
sentiment  of  moral  obligation,  yielding  much  fruit  of 
sublimity  and  tenderness,  is  yet  more  or  less  an  over- 
bearing despotism.  Its  austere  and  jealous  God  tends 
to  paralyze  the  worshipper's  freedom  with  dread  of 
having  done,  or  of  being  about  to  do,  something  that 
trenches  upon  exclusive  and  sovereign  claims.  Hence 
an  intensity  of  contrition,  and  a  disposition  to  dwell 
on  what  is  called  the  "malignity"  of  sin,  amount- 
ing, in  the  ultimate  phases  to  which  Christian  the- 
ology has  developed  it,  to  a  demand  for  self-contempt 
and  even  self-abhorrence  as  the  first  condition  of 
piety  !  Now  it  is  certain  that  nothing  like  this  will  be 
found  in  the  Vedic  or  any  other  religion  of  Aryan 
origin.  But  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  such  religions 
do  not  rest  on  moral  and  spiritual  foundations.  If  they 
know  nothing  of  these  moral  agonies,  so  liable  to 
narrow  and  enslave  the  mind,  they  are  not  for  this 
reason  incapable  of  recognizing  the  inevitable  penalty, 
and  the  need  of  divine  renewal,  involved  in  evil  think- 
ing and  ignoble  living. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  gods  are  not  jealous  of  the 
liberties  of  their  worshipper.  They  cordially  beckon 
him   on   every  side,   and   make   the  world    a  genial 

1  R.  V.,  VII.  8S.  2  Hardwick,  I.  1S1. 


124  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

climate  for  all  his  energies.  If  there  is  danger  lest 
this  entire  spontaneity  should  relax  the  authority  of 
conscience,  there  is  at  least  implied  in  it  a  guarantee 
of  freedom  and  progress  indispensable  to  conscience 
itself.  It  does  not  dwell  mournfully  and  hopelessly 
on  the  past,  nor  on  the  enormity  of  offence ;  but  passes 
readily  on  to  greet  fresh  opportunity,  accepting  the 
future  as  still  its  friend.  This  moral  elasticity  and 
ready  recovery  of  self-estimation,  this  good  under- 
standing between  the  conscience  and  a  happy  devel- 
opment of  all  human  powers,  is  the  needful  corrective 
of  a  despotic  moralism  in  religion  and  culture,  which 
Semitic  earnestness  has  mingled  with  its  better  gifts 
to  the  inward  life  of  man. 

The  Hymns  to  Varuna,  which  have  suggested  these 
TheAdi-  remarks  concerning  a  common  criticism  upon 
tyas.  religions    of  non-Semitic   origin,  are    not  the 

only  illustrations  of  the  Vedic  conscience.  Varuna 
is  one  of  Seven  Adityas,  or  Everlasting  Ones.1  These 
are  the  "Children  of  Aditi,"  who  is  "The  Unlimited, 
Immortal  Light  Beyond."  Sleepless,  beholding  all 
things,  far  and  near,  evil  and  good,  the  innermost 
thoughts  of  men,  —  irreproachable  protectors  of  the 
universe,  haters  of  falsehood,  punishers  of  sin,  yet 
forgivers  too,  and  abandoning  none,  they  "bridge  the 
paths  to  immortality,  and  uphold  the  heavens  for  the 
sake  of  the  upright."2  And  to  them  the  herdsman 
prayed  that  he  might  escape  the  vices  that  were  "  like 
pitfalls  in  his  path;"  calling  on  them  to  spread  their 
protection  over  him,  "  as  birds  spread  their  wings  over 
their  young." 3  Of  these  the  nearest  to  Varuna  is 
Mitra,  " the  Friend." 

1  Roth,  ut  supra,  Zeitschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  VI.  69  ;  Miiller's  Rig  Veda,  I.  Notes,  p.  237. 

2  R.  V.,  II.  27.  »  Ibid.,  VIII.  47,  2.     See  Muir,  V.  57. 


THE    HYMNS.  1 25 

"  Neither  is  the  right  nor  the  left  hand  known  to  us, 
neither  what  is  before  nor  what  is  behind.  O  givers  of 
our  homes,  may  I,  weak  and  afraid,  be  guided  by  you 
to  the  light  that  is  free  from  fear.  Far  or  nigh,  there 
can  come  no  harm  to  him  who  is  in  your  leading."  : 

Though  called  "children  of  the  light,"  these  Im- 
mortals   are  not    to   be    confounded  with    the  m  . 

Their  spmt- 

heavenly  bodies  :  they  are  not  mere  phases  of  uaimean- 
the  Sun,  as  the  later  Puranas  have  been  sup-  ing- 
posed  to  represent  them.  They  were  conceived  as 
the  unseen  support  and  background  of  his  radiance. 
Their  light  was  of  the  spirit.  Their  very  names  have 
moral  and  religious  import,  born  of  the  conscience  and 
the  heart.  They  mean  Friend,  Protector,  Beholder, 
Sympathizer,  Benefactor,  Giver  without  Prayer.2  They 
preserve  from  the  evil  spirits,  or  druhs,  that  follow 
the  sins  of  men."  The  oldest  Aryan  faith  centres  in 
these  Shining  Ones.  The  Adityas  are,  in  fact,  radiant 
witnesses  that  the  visible  heavens  have  always  been 
recognized  as  the  symbol  of  a  Higher  Light,  through 
which  the  soul  lies  for  ever  open  to  infinite  wisdom, 
justice,  and  care. 

In  all  ancient  religion  there  is  no  name  more  in- 
teresting than  that  of  Aditi,  the  "  mother "  The  mother 
of  the  Aryan  gods.  To  maternity  all  deities  of  the  gods- 
pay  reverence ;  and  to  the  bosom  of  its  infinite  ten- 
derness man  must  refer  his  whole  conception  of  the 
divine.  "  Aditi,"  says  Max  Miiller,  "  is  the  earliest 
name  invented  to  express  the  Infinite,  —  the  visible  in- 
finite. A-diti  is  the  unbound,  unbounded,  one  might 
almost  say,  the  Absolute.  It  is  a  name  for  the  dis- 
tant East,  the  Dawn,  — but  more,  Beyond  the  Dawn; 
and  in  one  place  the  Dawn  is  called  the  '  Face  of 

1  R.  V.,  II.  27,  11,  13.  s  Roth,  ut  supra. 


126  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

Aditi.'  In  her  cosmic  order  she  is  The  Beyond,  the 
unbounded  realm  beyond  earth  and  sky."  Beyond 
Aditi,  however,  was  Daksha,  literally  "  the  powerful." 
"She,  O  Daksha,  who  is  thy  daughter;  after  her, 
the  gods."1  Yet  Daksha  is  also  said  to  be  born  of 
Aditi.2  And  here  it  must  be  noted  that  this  phrase- 
ology of  descent  does  not  indicate  chronological  suc- 
cession, but  ideal  relation ;  just  as  we  may  say,  with 
equal  truth,  that  light  is  the  child  of  power,  and 
that  power  is  the  offspring  of  light.  Yet  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  this  reaching  forth  to  an  all- 
embracing  Life  beyond  and  behind  special  forms  of 
deity,  —  an  ultimate  in  which  the  two  conceptions  of 
love  and  power,  under  the  symbols  of  male  and  female, 
are  combined  in  the  interchangeableness  of  Daksha 
and  Aditi  at  the  fountain  of  being,  —  is  but  a  typical 
expression  of  the  whole  religious  experience  of  the 
Vedic  poets.  For  we  find  the  same  unlimited  capac- 
ity invoked,  in  each  and  every  deity,  to  reach  "but 
beyond  itself,  with  a  care  and  a  power  that  should 
absorb  all  the  rest. 

The  study  of  the  Rig  Veda  has  revealed  the 
The  earliest  fact  ^iat  the  earliest  apotheosis  of  which  we 
apotheosis.  have  record  was  a  form  of  homage  to  virtue. 
Some  of  the  hymns  are  addressed  to  deified  men, 
who  had  attained  their  divinity  through  beneficent 
work.3  They  are  the  "  dexterous,  humble-minded 
artisans  of  the  gods."4  The  miracles  ascribed  to 
them  indicate  what  was  then  thought  godlike  in  con- 
duct. They  had  restored  their  parents  to  youth  ;  an 
act  typical,  to  the  Oriental  mind,  of  all  social  virtues. 

1  Mtiller's  Rig  Veda,  I.  p.  230,  237;  Muir,  Sanskrit  Texts,  IV.  10-13. 

2  R.  V.,  X.  72,  4,  5. 

*  Neve,  Mythe  des  Ribhavas  ;  Roth,  Brahma  und  die  Brahmanen%  in  Zeitsch.  d.  Morg. 
Ges.,  I.  76. 

*  R.  V ,  V.  42,  12  (Wilson) 


THE    HYMNS.  1 27 

They  had  made  a  chariot  for  the  dawn,  that  daily 
blessings  might  be  brought  to  all  men.  They  had 
multiplied  sacred  vessels  for  the  service  of  the  gods. 
They  had  created,  or  brought  back  to  life,  cattle  for 
the  poor.1  Their  name,  Ribhavas,  formed  from  that 
most  fruitful  of  Aryan  roots,  which  indicates  upward 
movement,  points  to  aspiration  and  growth.  It  is 
closely  related  to  the  Greek  Orpheus,  both  names  sym- 
bolizing the  arts  of  orderly  and  rhythmic  construction  ; 
and  to  the  German  Elfen,  denoting  the  busy,  service- 
able elves.2  To  these  divine  helpers,  who  seem  to 
have  been  in  some  respects  identical  with  the  -pitris^ 
or  ancestral  fathers  of  families,  especially  in  their 
beneficence,  prayers  were  addressed  for  the  same 
blessings  which  the  older  deities  bestowed.  Thus 
the  good  man  ascends  to  heaven,  and  stands  among 
the  gods.  The  stars  of  the  generous  shine  in  the 
firmament :  they  partake  of  immortality.3  They  are 
like  the  AsVins,  those  divine  physicians,  who  enabled 
the  lame  to  walk,  the  blind  to  see ;  who  restored  the 
aged  to  youth,  were  guardians  of  "the  slow  and 
weak,"  relieved  burns  with  snow,  cured  cattle,  sowed 
fields,  and  delivered  sailors  from  storms.4 

This  instinctive  recognition  of  the  divine  in  the  hu- 
man gave  shape  to  the  Vedic  idea  of  a  Future  The  Future 
Life.     The  first  man  who  had  passed  through  Life- 

*  R.  V.,  IV.  33,35,  36;  V.  3I,  3. 

2  See  Kelly's  Indo-European  Folk-Lore,  p.  19. 

3  R-  V.,  X.  88,  15.  (See  Maury,  Croyances,  &c,  147.)  Even  if,  as  Neve  supposes,  the 
multiplication  of  the  goblets  for  worship,  as  well  as  the  other  services  to  the  gods  ascribed 
to  the  Ribhavas,  signify  that  they  "  extended  the  pomp  and  importance  of  the  religious 
ritual,"  and  represented  the  tendency  to  priestly  organization  in  those  early  times,  it  will  be 
none  the  less  true  that  they  were  exalted  to  divinity  for  acts  held  in  grateful  remembrance 
as  serviceable  to  men.  That  they  were  merely  priests,  or  beloved  for  merely  vicarious  and 
official  acts,  the  whole  account  of  them  in  the  Rig  Veda  disproves. 

4  See  Muir,  V.  242,  and  R.  V.,  I.  116-120.  For  remarks  on  the  relations  of  the  Ribhus 
and  Pitris  to  the  bright  spirits  or  elves  of  the  Teutonic  mythology,  see  Kelly's  Indo-Europ- 
Folk-Lore,  p.  19. 


128  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

death  waited,  enthroned  in  immortal  light,  to  welcome 
the  good  into  his  kingdom  of  joy.1  This  "  Assembler 
and  King  of  Men  "  in  another  life  had  himself  been  hu- 
man, and  knew  all  human  needs.  Death  was  thus 
Yama's  kindly  messenger,  "  to  bring  them  to  the  homes 
he  had  gone  before  to  prepare  for  them,  and  which 
could  not  be  taken  from  them."  2  It  was  far  in  Varu- 
na's  world  of  perfect  and  undying  light,  in  the  "  third 
heaven,"  in  the  very  "  sanctuary  of  the  sky,  and  of 
the  great  waters,"  and  in  the  bosom  of  the  Highest 
Gods.  Thither  the  fathers  had  gone,  and  "  the  earth, 
the  air,  and  the  sky  were  underneath  them  ;  "  and 
thither  the  children  were  following,  each  on  his  own 
appointed  path.3  That  which  men  desire  is  the 
attainment  of  good  in  the  world  where  they  may 
behold  their  parents  and  abide,  free  from  infirmities, 
"  where  the  One  Being  dwells  beyond  the  stars." 4  The 
morning  and  evening  twilight,  the  gloaming  in  which 
darkness  mingles  with  light,  were  the  "  outstretched 
arms  of  death,"  the  two  watchful  dogs  of  Yama, 
guiding  men  to  their  rest.5  The  poet  sang  the  in- 
evitable longing,  and  the  assurance  that  has  for  ever 
come  with  it.  "  There  make  me  immortal,  where 
action  is  free,  and  all  desires  are  fulfilled."6  And 
age  after  age  the  simple  tribes  repeated  the  Hymn. 
And  while  the  mourners  for  the  dead,  in  their  rude 
symbolism  of  mingled  faith  and  fear,  set  a  stone 
between  themselves  and  the  grave,  and  placed  the 
clog  upon  the  feet  that  were  to  move  no  more,  and 

1  Roth,  in  Zeitschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  IV.  426  ;  R.  V.,  X.  1,  14. 

2  R.  V.,  IX.  113,  7. 

»  Hymns  in  R.  V.,  X. 
«  R.  V.,  X.  82,  2. 

e  Miiller's  Science  of  Language,  II.  496. 

6  Rig  Veda  Burial  Hymns,  translated  by  Muir,  Sansk-  Texts,  II.  468,  and  by  Whit- 
ney, Bib.  Sac,  1859 ;  Roth,  D.  M.  G.,  II.  225 ;  IV.  428. 


THE    HYMNS. 


I29 


took  the  bow  from    the   nerveless  hands,  placing  in 
them  —  in  token  of  Nature's  bounty  and  protecting 
care — portions  of  the  body  of  the  goat  or  cow,  their 
trustful    ritual  made  appeal  to  the  Earth  to  "  receive 
him   kindly,  and  cover   him  with  her  garment   as   a 
mother  her  child ; "    to  the  Fire-gods,  to  "  warm  by 
their  heat  his  immortal  part ;  "    and  to  the  Guide  of 
Souls,  "to  bear  him  by  his  sure  paths  to  the  world 
of  the  just."     To  the  body  it  said,  "  Go  to  thy  Mother, 
the  wide-spread,  bounteous,  tender  Earth.     I  lay  the 
covering  on  thee  :  may  it  press  lightly ;  thou  feelest 
it  not.     Pass,  at  thy  will,  to  the  earth  or  sky."     And 
to  the  spirit,  "  Go  thou  home  to  the  fathers,  on  their 
ancient  paths  :  lay  aside  what  is  evil  in  thee  :  guarded 
by   Yama    from    his    sharp-eyed    sentinels,    by   right 
ways  ascend  to  the  farthest  heaven,  if  thou  hast  de- 
served  it,    and    dwell,  in    a    shining   body,  with  the 
gods.     May  the  fathers  watch  thy  grave,  and  Yama 
give  thee  a  home."1     "Let  him  depart,"  it  is  some- 
times added,  "to  the  mighty  in  battle ;  to  the  heroes 
who,  have  laid  down  their  lives  for  others,  to  those 
who    have    bestowed    their    goods    on    the    poor."2 
"  Wash   the    feet  of  him  who  is  stained    with    sin," 
says  the   Atharva;  "let  him    go   upward   with   pure 
feet." 

And  so,  amidst  prayers,  libations  of  water,  and 
purifying  fires,  the  loved  were  sped  on  their  unseen 
way  ;  and  death  was  conquered,  in  these  rude  children 
of  Nature,  by  an  unquestioning  trust  in  the  eternal 
validity  of  virtue,  in  the  fidelity  of  the  departed,   in 


1  Miiller's  Transl.  of  Burial  Hymns,  in  Zeitschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  IX.  [Appendix],  and 
Whitney,  ut  supra.  The  tender  invocation,  "may  it  press  lightly,"  was  a  part  of  the  burial 
rite  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  also.     Eurip.,  Alcest.,  463;  Juvenal,  VII.  207. 

2  R.  V.,  X.  154. 


I3O  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

the  care  of  a  Providence  as  wide  as  their  thought  of 
being,  or  their  need. 

The  honor  paid  by  such  childlike  instincts  of  grati- 
tude and  trust  to  the  souls  of  parents  at  their  graves 
was  the  natural  bond  of  these  simple  tribes  with  an 
unseen  world  and  future  life.  The  Sraddha,  or  offer- 
ing of  rice-cakes  to  his  father's  spirit,  is  the  first  duty 
of  the  Hindu  son  ;  and  it  has  descended  from  remotest 
antiquity.  This  oldest  religion  of  filial  piety  appears 
in  all  branches  of  the  Aryan  race. 

"  So  great,"  says  Cicero,  "  is  the  sanctity  of  the  tomb. 
Our  ancestors  have  desired  that  those  who  departed 
this  life  should  be  held  as  deities."1  Plato  says  :  "  Let 
men  fear  in  the  first  place  the  gods  above ;  next,  the 
souls  of  the  dead,  to  whom  in  the  course  of  nature  it 
belongs  to  have  a  care  of  their  offspring." 2  The 
Latin  "  Dii  Manes  "  and  the  Greek  "  Theoi  Chthonioi  " 
correspond  perfectly  to  the  Vedic  Pitris,  blessed  div- 
inities who  watch  over  their  descendants,  and  expect 
their  tribute  of  holy  rites.  The  Pitris  were  in  fact 
fathers  of  families,  and  represent  the  religion  of 
those  patriarchal  times  when  the  family,  isolated  and 
self-sustained,  was  the  centre  of  social  life  and  the 
foundation  of  all  law  and  rite. 

Whether  the  body  was  buried  or  burned,  the  garment 
The  spirit-  °f  tne  spirit  was  to  be  fire,  "the  bright  armor 
uai  body.  0f  Agni."  3  Of  course  it  cannot  here  receive  the 
symbolic  meaning  which  it  holds  in  the  mature  relig- 
ious imagination,  in  the  poetry  of  the  later  mystics.  But 
it  would  be  equally  wrong  to  take  it  in  a  merely  gross 
and  material  sense.     In  fact,  we  detect  in  it  the  natural 

1  De  Leg.,  II.  22.     So  Eurip.,  Alcest.     "  Stant  manibus  ara :  "  Virgil  (III.  64). 

2  Laws,  XI.  8. 

3  R.  V.,  X.  14,  8 ;  16,  4.  So,  in  the  later  epic  belief,  the  perfect  men,  the  great  sages, 
cast  off  their  old  bodies  and  ascend  in  new  ones  of  a  splendor  like  the  sun,  and  in  chariots 
of  fire. 


THE    HYMNS.  I3I 

germ  of  all  ideas,  Christian  or  other,  of  a  spiritual 
body;  a  blending  of  sense  and  soul;  a  clinging  of 
the  imagination  and  the  affections  to  the  familiar 
organs  through  which  life  has  been  manifested,  as 
if  still  existing  or  destined  to  resume  existence,  even 
after  they  have  turned  to  dust.  Vedic  Hymns  not 
only  exhort  the  fire  "  not  to  burn  nor  tear  the  body," 
but  even  invoke  the  fathers  to  "  rejoice  in  heaven  with 
all  their  limbs."  Even  the  gods  themselves  have 
material  enjoyments.  Here  it  is  the  deep  natural  in- 
stinct of  respect  for  life,  that  attributes  permanence 
and  power  over  death  even  to  its  corporeal  exponents. 
But  the  maturer  doctrines  of  a  glorified  spiritual  body 
and  a  corporeal  resurrection  spring  originally  from 
the  same  instinct.  They  betray  the  same  confused 
perception  of  the  relations  of  the  physical  with  the 
moral.  And  if  this  is  not  gross  materialism  in  the 
Christian  dogma,  neither  is  it  so  in  the  Vedic  hymn. 

Of  the  same  nature,  and  equally  common  among 
early  races  of  the  Aryan  stock,  is  the  apparent  inconsis- 
tency of  treating  the  departed  spirit  as  if  shut  up  under 
ground,  and  dependent  on  food  provided  at  the  grave 
by  living  relatives,  while  it  is  at  the  same  time  invoked 
as  moving  in  a  freer  sphere,  and  addressed  as  con- 
scious of  their  veneration  and  love.1 

The  moral  aspect  of  Vedic  immortality  points  to  the 
same  respect  for  life  and  its  uses.     The  spirit  Immortai 
in  his  armor  of  fire  was  not  to  live  for  self:  he  Life- 
was  to  protect  the  good,  to  attend  the  gods,  and  to  be 
like  them.2      Such  is  the  immortal    function    of  the 
gitris,  as  intimated  in  the  hymns,   which   represent 

1  Juvenal,  VII.  207  ;  Eurip.,  Alcest.,  463,993-1003  ;  Helene,  962  ;  Virgil,  jEn-,  III.  67 ; 
Cic.  Tusc.  Ques.,  I.  16 ;  Ovid's  Metam.  \Or/>h.  and  Euryd.~\,  X.  1  85. 

2  Roth  in  D.  M.  G.,  I.  76;  IV.  428;  R.  V.,  X.  15. 


132  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

them  as  altogether  happy  therein.  w  They  have 
adorned  the  sky  with  stars,  placed  darkness  in  the 
night  and  light  in  the  day."  Even  when  drinking  up 
the  libations  of  their  worshippers,  as  if  to  satisfy  phys- 
ical thirst,  they  are  busy  in  offices  of  guardianship. 
Their  immortal  life  is  none  other  than  the  actual  life 
of  the  best  men. 

"On  the  path  of  the  fathers,  there  are  eight  and  eighty  thousand 
patriarchal  men,  who  turn  back  to  the  earthly  life  to  sow  righteous- 
ness and  to  succor  it."  ' 

"  He  who  gives  alms  goes  to  the  highest  heaven,  goes  to  the 
gods." 2 

"  To  be  kind  to  the  poor  is  to  be  greater  than  the  great  there."  3 

We  find  the  same  belief  among  the  Greeks.  "The 
souls  of  the  dead,"  says  Plato,  reproducing  the  oldest 
faith  of  his  race,  "incline,  like  the  gods,  to  the  care 
of  the  orphans  and  the  destitute :  they  are  kind  to 
those  who  act  justly,  but  angry  with  those  who  act 
otherwise."4 

Vedic  futurity  has  its  heaven,  but  no  very  distinct 
No  infemo.  traces  of  a  hell.5  Not  that  sins  are  without  their 
penalties.  This  would  be  impossible  in  Varuna's 
world.  "  The  Druhs,  f  powers  of  evil,'  follow  the  sins 
of  men,  binding  as  with  cords."6  But  these  simple 
hymns  are  natural  outpouring  of  the  trust,  rather  than 
of  the  fears  or  hates,  of  the  poet.  Their  divinity  is  mer- 
ciful, and  loves  to  efface  the  marks  of  transgression. 
And  the  yearnings  of  the  heart  to  brighten  and  warm 
the  shadows  of  futurity  leave  no  room  for  that  sternness 

1  R.  V.,  X.  15  ;   YAjnavalkya,  III.  186. 

2  R.  V.,  I.  125,  5.  6. 

8  See  Muller,  Chips,  I.  46. 
*  Laws,  XI.  8. 

B  The  same  is  true  of  the  oldest  Chinese  Scriptures,  or  "  Kings."    The  Veda  has  two 
or  three  intimations  of  an  abyss  of  darkness.     Muir  V.  312. 
8  R.  V.,  VII.  6i,  5 ;  59,  8. 


THE    HYMNS.  133 

of  judgment  which  would  blacken  them  with  its  own 
spirit  of  avenging  wrath.1  The  theological  hell  of 
civilized  races  has  been  worked  up  with  a  refined  vin- 
dictiveness,  and  a  morbid  exaggeration  of  moral  evil 
under  the  name  of  organic  "  sin,"  that  does  not  shrink 
from  staining  the  eternity  of  God  with  blind  inexora- 
ble hate.  But  this  systematized  ferocity  in  judicial 
logic  comes  from  the  perversion  of  developed  mind  and 
conscience.  The  childish  familiarities  of  rude  races 
with  their  gods  are  not  so  audacious  and  irreverent  as 
this ;  and  if  they  lack  the  constraints  of  its  infernal 
terrors,  they  escape  also  their  fearfully  demoralizing 
power. 

Here  is  a  period  of  pure  spontaneity  in  man's  ex- 
perience, before  he  had  begun  to  brood  over    Sponta. 
the  hideous  fantasy  of  everlasting  woe  ;    and    neity- 
we  are   glad  to  note   how  far  the  good  impulses  of 
Nature  have  sped  him  without  the  goads  of  that  dismal 
lore. 

We  hail  the  simplicity  of  these  moral  and  spiritual 
instincts,  so  frank  and  direct,  like  the  opening  eyes  of 
a  child,  or  the  movement  of  his  limbs  at  play.  This 
entire  confidence  in  immortality  was  based  on  an  intui- 
tive trust  in  the  continuity  of  life,  and  in  destiny  pro- 
portioned to  the  best  desires.  It  associated  itself  with 
filial  and  parental  love,  a  firm  belief  in  the  continued 
interest  of  ancestors,  who  had  entered  Varuna's  world 
beyond  death. 

"  Give  me,  O  Agni,  to  the  great  Aditi,  that  I  may  again  behold 
my  father  and  my  mother." 2 

1  In  the  early  teaching  of  Buddhism,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  similar  effect,  arising 
from  the  intensity  of  sympathy  and  pity.  Among  certain  savage  races,  as  the  Kamska- 
dales  and  the  North  American  Indians,  there  is  no  definite  idea  of  a  hell. 

2  R.  V.,  I.  24,  2. 


134  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

Such  reliance  on  the  demands  of  the  affections  is 
prophetic  of  immortality  in  its  highest  meaning.  It 
comports,  too,  with  the  genial  sense  of  present  realities 
which  predominates  in  these  Hymns.  Yet  this  very 
quality  has  perhaps  led  to  an  impression  that  they  indi- 
cate but  faint  belief  in  a  future  existence.  The  constant 
tributes  to  the  pitris,  for  example,  have  been  repre- 
sented as  "  merely  an  expression  of  grateful  remem- 
brance." *  Such  estimates  fail  of  justice  to  that  instinct 
of  continued  existence  which  would  naturally  be  de- 
veloped by  a  healthful  confidence  in  life  itself.  It  is 
earnest  and  deep  in  the  Vedic  poets,  for  the  very  rea- 
son that  it  is  so  closely  associated  with  the  affections. 
Every  god  and  every  good  act,  it  would  seem,  was  the 
promise  of  "  immortality." 

The  sense  of  living,  the  feeling  of  real  import  in 
actual,  present  experience,  must  have  been  very  in- 
tense in  such  a  race  as  the  Vedic  Aryans.  And  this 
is  ever  the  germ  and  the  guarantee  of  all  genuine 
sight  in  the  direction  of  a  future  life.  In  the  Rig  Veda 
it  is  perfectly  pure  and  simple  :  it  has  not  a  trace  of  the 
later  schemes  of  transmigration,  with  their  elaborate 
ingenuity  of  fear ;  nor  of  ascetic  disciplines  bartering 
comfort  in  this  life  for  bliss  in  another.  This  relig- 
ion is  just  the  inborn  impulse  to  believe,  to  aspire ; 
the  natural  search  that  finds  the  hand  it  feels  after,  be- 
cause it  is  this  very  hand  that  moves  it  to  feel.  "  The 
belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,"  says  Burnouf, 
"  not  naked  and  inactive,  but  living  and  clothed  with  a 
glorious  body,  was  never  interrupted  for  a  moment :  it 
is  now  in  India  what  it  was  in  those  ancient  times,  and 
even  rests  on  a  similar  metaphysical  basis."2 

1  Wheeler's  History  of  India,  II.  436. 

2  Le  Veda,  p.  186. 


THE    HYMNS.  135 

Here  is  as  yet  no  idolatry  nor  organized  priesthood, 
no  ecclesiastical  nor  mediatorial  authority.    The 

_     .        .  .  Simplicity 

Aryans  had  risen  beyond  the  fetichism  which  0f  life  and 
is  found  in  the  lowest  races  to  be  without  these  worslup- 
elements,1  to  a  stage  which  dispensed  with  them 
through  higher  insight.  The  parent,  as  transmitting 
the  mysterious  life  principle,  was  the  centre  of  religion. 
Each  householder  was  as  Arya,  capable  of  immedi- 
ate relation  with  the  family  deities ;  was  priest  and 
psalmist  in  one  :  and  rites  were  still  domestic.2  There 
is  no  trace  of  the  burning  of  widows,  no  prohibi- 
tion of  their  marrying  again.  The  filial  instincts 
were  the  basis  of  a  social  order  as  yet  innocent  of 
castes.3  The  marriage  relation  had  its  sacramental 
rites;  and  polygamy,  though  not  absent,  was  excep- 
tional.4 We  are  still  farther  from  the  barbarous  custom 
of  polyandry,  which  appears  more  distinctly  in  the 
epics,  and  of  which  a  trace  is  discovered  in  but  one 
Vedic  hymn.5 

A  delicate  sense  of  the  significance  of  family  ties  is 
indicated  in  the  words  chosen  to  represent  them,  The  sexes 
—  words  which  remain  in  all  Aryan  tongues  to  equaL 
testify  of  this  fine  instinct  in  the  childhood  of  the  race.6 
The  sexes  are  on  the  same  level,  and  the  Vedic  idea 
of  their  mutual  relations  strongly  reminds  us  of  that 
which  prevailed  in  the  old  Germanic  tribes.7  The 
marriage  rite  by  joining  hands  and  walking  round  the 

1  See  instances  in  Lubbock's  Origin  of  Civilization. 

2  Wilson's  Introd.  to  Rig  Veda;  Burnouf,  p.  226. 

3  Haug,  Brahma  und  die  Brahmanen,  affirms,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  most  schol- 
ars, that  the  castes  existed  in  an  organized  form  in  the  oldest  Vedic  times.  At  most,  how- 
ever, his  illustrations  seem  to  prove  only  that  germs  of  these  distinct  orders  of  society 
were  visible  in  the  early  rituals.  His  principal  authority,  R.  V.,  X.  90,  is  generally  regarded 
as  of  late  origin.  See  Muir's  effective  reply  to  this  theory  of  Haug  and  Kern,  in  Sanskrit 
Texts,  II.  457.     Wilson,  R.  V.,  II.  xi. 

4  Muir,  V.  457.  e  Wheeler's  Hist,  of  India,  II.  502. 

6  Burnouf,  Le  Veda,  ch.  vii. 

7  Weber's  Ind.  Stud.,  V.  177 ;  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  II.  33S. 


I36  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

hearth  does  not  seem  to  imply  either  a  "  natural  "  or 
"ordained"  supremacy  of  the  male  over  the  female.1 
Husband  and  wife  were  equal  in  the  household,  and 
at  the  altar  of  sacrifice.2  Woman  cares  for  the  sa- 
cred vessels,  prepares  the  oblation,  often  composes  the 
hymn.  There  are  references,  perhaps  symbolical,  to 
the  mother  of  the  altar  fire,  who  gathers  the  Soma, 
and  holds  it  in  her  bosom  as  a  babe ; 3  to  the  sacred 
mothers,  who  adorn  this  child  of  the  sky.4  There 
are  hymns  descriptive  of  domestic  affection,  and 
breathing  the  sentiment  of  love.  The  union  of  hus- 
band and  wife  is  likened  to  the  "  embrace  of  Indra  by 
the  hymn."  The  sun  follows  the  dawn  as  a  man  a 
woman  ;  and  the  dawn  is  like  "  a  radiant  bride." 

"As  a  loving  wife  shows  herself  to  her  husband,  so  does  she, 
smiling,  reveal  her  form  ;  moving  forth  to  arouse  all  creatures  to 
their  labors."  "All  life,  all  breath,  is  in  thee,  O  Dawn,  as  thou 
ascendest.     Rise,  daughter  of  heaven,  with  blessings  !  " 5 

The  religion  of  labor  is  honored  in  harvest  hymns. 
The  husbandman  prays  that  "  the  ploughshare  may 
cut  the  earth  with  good  fortune."  The  physician 
blesses  his  healing  herbs,  and  hints,  with  a  touch  of 
humor,  that  it  is  not  a  bad  thing  to  cure  the  sick,  and 
make  money,  at  one  stroke.6  A  democratic  instinct 
has  play  in  this  Vedic  community  of  functions,  in  which 
"  the  purohita  could  till  the  earth  or  pasture  flocks,  as 
well  as  crush  the  Soma  or  kindle  the  sacred  fire." ' 

Some  hymns  have  serious  moral  purport,  and  record 

Ethics.        the  effects  of  vicious   habits  on  personal  and 

domestic  happiness,  in  descriptions  which  have 


1  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  II.  338. 

2  Weber,  Vorlesungen,  pp.  37,  38 ;  Miiller,  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  28.     R.  V.,  IX.  96. 

3  R.  V.,  V.  2,  1,  2.  *  Ibid.,  II.  33,  5. 
B  Rig  Veda,  II.  39,  2  ;  I.  1,  23  ;  X.  43,  1  ;  I.  48,  92. 

5  R.  V.,  X.  97.     Roth  ,  in  D.  M.  G-,  XXV.        »  Burnouf,  Essai sur  le  Veda,  p.  227. 


THE    HYMNS.  137 

lost  none  of  their  truth  for  human  nature  by  the  lapse 
of  three  thousand  years.  The  gambler  "  finds  no 
comfort  in  his  need  :  his  dice  give  transient  gifts,  and 
ruin  the  winner :  he  is  vexed  to  see  his  own  wife,  and 
the  wives  and  happy  homes  of  other  men."  Rudra  is 
entreated  not  to  "  take  advantage,  like  a  trader ',  of  his 
worshippers."  "  Men  anoint  Savitri  with  milk,  when 
he  makes  man  and  wife  of  one  mind." 
Here  too  are  philanthropic  sayings  :  — 

"  I  regard  as  king  of  men  him  who  first  presented  a  gift." 

"  The  wise  man  makes  the  giving  of  largess  his  breastplate." 

"The  bountiful  suffer  neither  want  nor  pain." 

"  The  car  of  bounty  rolls  on  easy  wheels." 

"  He  who,  provided  with  food,  hardens  his  heart  against  the 
poor,  meets  with  none  to  cheer  him.  Let  every  one  depart  from 
such  an  one  :  his  house  is  no  home." 

"  Let  the  powerful  be  generous  to  the  suppliant :  let  him  look 
to  the  long  path." 

"  For  riches  revolve  like  wheels :  they  come  now  to  one,  and 
now  to  another." 

"  He  who  keeps  his  food  to  himself  has  his  sin  to  himself  also."  1 

And  here  finally  is  a  quaint  benediction  from  the 
later  Atharva  Veda,  which  sounds  like  an  echo  of 
this  simpler  domestic  age  :  — 

"  I  perform  an  incantation  in  your  house.  I  impart  to  you  con- 
cord, with  delight  in  each  other,  as  of  a  cow  at  the  birth  of  her  calf. 
Let  not  brother  hate  brother,  nor  sister  sister."  2 

Of  the  Vedic  sacrifices,  we  cannot  speak  so  posi- 
tively. Yet,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  there  was  Meaning  of 
the  same  frankness  and  simplicity  in  these  sacrifice- 
as  in  other  matters.  Sacrifice  is  always  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  from  the  earliest  to  the  latest 
form,  in  some  sense  the  consecration  of  one's  best 
and    dearest   possession   to    his  ideal.      Even  in  the 

1  R    V.,  X.  107,  117  (Muir).  2  At  A.  Ved.,  III.  30. 


I38  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

lowest  tribes  this  cannot  be  the  mere  reluctant  service 
of  fear,  or  atonement  of  sin  :  gratitude,  trust,  and  love, 
must  mingle  in  these  primal  relations  with  the  invisible. 
And  the  very  sincerity  of  the  instinct  involves  search- 
ing for  the  mysterious  and  even  the  noble  qualities 
of  things,  beyond  their  mere  barter  price ;  an  effort 
to  discover  their  representative  values ;  in  other 
words,  an  ideal   aim. 

And  so  the  Aryan  offered  these  three  gifts :  the 
vedicsacri-  plant,  whose  juices  promised  new  life  to  all 
fices.  inactive  powers ;  clarified  butter,  as  choicest 

gift  of  his  herds  and  his  simple  art,  just  as  the  He- 
brew offered  his  corn  and  wine ;  and,  above  all,  fire, 
as  the  purest  of  elements,  the  light  and  life  of  nature 
and  of  man.  These  his  best  he  brought  with  awe,1 
not  only  as  his  own  choice,  but  as  themselves  par- 
taking of  the  divinity,  to  whom  he  yielded  them  as  to 
their  natural  source  and  home.  He  had  chosen  them 
because  he  saw  divineness  in  them ;  for  nothing  less 
than  a  god  could  meet  his  desire.  In  the  sacrificial 
act  he  stood  their  ministrant ;  to  further,  not  to  destroy, 
their  life.  It  was  meant  not  only  to  effectuate  their 
saving  power  towards  himself,  but  also  to  second  their 
own  inmost  purpose,  and  inspire  the  divinity  with  the 
joy  of  finding  his  own ;  speeding  the  inherent  good- 
will that  nestled  within  them  to  its  fulfilment  in  the 
bright  track  of  the  altar  flame.  The  offering,  this 
bright  Agni,  was  thus  a  radiant  messenger,  swift  to 
bring  the  earthly  blessing  and  the  divine  society,  and 
winged  with  freedom  and  delight.  Do  we  not  note 
here  in  its  early  form  that  intuition,  which  makes  the 
saint  or  martyr  see  his  own  powers  transfigured,  by 
the  ideal  to  which  they  have  been  dedicated,  as  his 

1  Rig  Veda,  I.  91 ;  VI.  47;  VI.  16,  42. 


THE    HYMNS.  139 

best  gift?  Such  meaning  was  hinted  in  Soma,  symbol 
of  life  given  for  the  good  of  men,  to  quicken  them  to 
"immortality."  It  is  the  vital  fire  of  the  universe 
poured  out  through  the  mystery  of  death  in  the  plant, 
to  resurrection  in  the  flame.  "It  generates  the  great 
light  of  day,  common  to  all  mankind."1 

This  covering  up  of  destruction  by  consecration, 
this  absorption  of  the  death  involved  in  sacri-  Human 
fice  by  the  life  it  is  to  effect,  this  belief  in  the  sacrifices. 
exaltation  of  the  victims  above  all  loss,  through  satis- 
faction of  the  divine  affinities  within  them,  —  is  for- 
ever the  significant  fact  in  the  sacrificial  impulse,  under 
whatever  name  it  appears.  Even  its  darkest  forms 
are  interwoven  with  this  redeeming  instinct.  This  is 
our  key  to  the  painful  fact  that  at  some  time  or  in 
some  form  human  sacrifice  has  been  the  custom  of 
almost  every  race  of  men.2  It  has  everywhere  been 
regarded,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  as  an  exaltation 
of  the  victim,  a  fulfilment  of  his  best  desire ;  as  his 
sublime  opportunity  of  representing  the  affections  of 
the  worshippers,  the  atonement  of  their  sins,  or  the 
assurance  of  their  hopes.  Thus  the  Nicaraguans 
believed  that  only  such  as  offered  themselves  on  the 
funeral  piles  of  the  chiefs  would  become  immortal.3 
The  Aztec  victim  was  held  to  be  the  favorite  of  the 
god ;  and  every  gift  and  honor  was  lavished  on  him  in 
preparation  for  his  exalted  destiny.  We  are  told  of  a 
Mexican  king  who  devoted  himself  with  many  of  his 
lords  to  sacrificial  death,  to  efface  the  dishonor  of  an 
insult ! 4  The  Khonds  regard  their  chosen  human 
victims  as  divine,  rear  them  with  utmost  tenderness, 

1  Rig  Veda,  IX.  61. 

2  The  sad  record  is  summed  up  in  Baring  Gould's  work  on  the  Origin  of  Religious 
Belief,  ch.  xviii.     See  also  Mackay's  Progress  oftlie  Intellect,  vol.  ii. 

3  Brinton's  Myths,  &c,  p.  i45.  i  Prescott's  Mexico,  I.  84. 


I4O  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

and  teach  them  that  a  noble  destiny  awaits  them.1 
The  choice  of  such  victims  as  were  free  from  blemish, 
as  well  as  most  precious  and  honored,  whether  of 
beast  or  man,  in  the  rites  of  Baal,  Moloch,  or  Zeus,  is 
sufficient  evidence  that  the  fate  was  believed  to  be 
essentially  a  blessing.  In  the  Ramayana,  the  hermit 
Sarabhanga,  believing  himself  desired  by  Brahma  for 
his  heaven,  only  defers  self-immolation  till  Rama's 
coming.  Having  seen  this  incarnation,  he  is  content, 
and  "  hastens  to  cast  off  his  body  as  a  serpent  his 
slough."  He  prepares  a  funeral  pile,  enters  the  fire, 
and  being  burned,  arises  as  a  youth  from  the  ashes, 
bright  as  flame.2 

The  burning  of  widows  with  their  husbands,  prac- 
tised under  Brahmanical  rules,  and  not  yet  quite 
extinct,  was  not  only  commended  by  the  hope  of  re- 
joining the  lost,  but  even  desired  as  a  crown  of  glory 
in  the  eyes  of  the  assembled  people.  It  was  also  a 
deliverance  from  the  doom  to  solitary  asceticism,  or  to 
new  repulsive  relations  for  securing  male  descend- 
ants to  the  deceased.  Mutual  attachment  alone  would 
have  made  sati  quite  natural  under  these  circum- 
stances.3 It  has  been  estimated  that  five-sixths  of  the 
women  who  undergo  it  are  moved  by  devotion  to  their 
affections.4  The  actual  spirit  of  this  rite  lifts  it  high 
among  those  forms  of  martyrdom  which  have  grown 
out  of  ignorant  notions  of  duty,  whether  Pagan  or 
Christian.  Women  have  been  seen  seated  in  the 
flames,  lifting  their  joined  hands  as  calmly  as  if  at 
ordinary  prayer.5  Ibn  Batuta  reports,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  that  the  woman  was  usually  surrounded 


1  Mrs.  Spier's  India,  p.  21.  2  Ramayana,  B.  III. 

3  See  Wheeler's  Hist.  of  India,  II.  116,  and  Arnold's  Life  of  Dalhousie,  II.  316. 

*  Arnold,  II.  314.  B  Life  of  Elphinstone,  I.  360. 


THE    HYMNS. 


I4I 


by  friends  who  gave  her  commissions  to  spirits  de- 
parted, while  she  laughed,  played,  or  danced,  down 
to  the  moment  of  being  burnt.  And  the  Dabistan 
tells  us  it  is  "  not  considered  right  to  force  a  woman 
into  the  fire." 

In  the  Mahabharata,  two  widows  of  a  raja  dispute 
for  the  privilege,  one  pleading  that  she  was  the  favor- 
ite wife,  the  other  that  she  was  the  first  and  chief. 
Herodotus  mentions  the  custom  of  the  Thracians  to 
select  the  best  beloved  wife  for  this  honor,  to  the  grief 
of  the  rest.1  And  the  Norse  Sagas  refer  to  widows 
who,  like  Nanna,  the  wife  of  Baldur,  insisted  on 
following  their  dead  husbands  and  sharing  their 
destiny.2 

If,  then,  human  sacrifice  existed  among  the  Vedic 
Aryans,   it   must    have  been  regarded   as  an 

...-,..  .  In  the  Veda. 

exaltation  of  the  victim ;  and  to  a  greater  ex- 
tent than  we  can  now  realize  accepted  by  him  as  such. 
Even  in  the  later  Puranas,  this  barbarous  rite,  which 
had  become  a  part  of  the  established  worship  of  Siva, 
is  found  still  penetrated  by  such  beliefs ;  and  without 
them  would  surely  have  been  a  far  more  cruel  super- 
stition than  it  was.  Siva  declares  the  victim  to  be 
"  even  as  himself."  Brahma  and  all  the  deities 
"  assemble  in  him,  and  be  he  ever  so  great  a  sinner 
he  is  made  pure,  and  gains  the  love  of  the  universe."  3 
That  such  sacrifices  were  ever  offered  by  the  Vedic 
Aryans  is  by  no  means  clear ;  and  the  supposed  notices 
of  this,  as  well  as  of  the  "  Horse  Sacrifice,"  in  the 
Hymns  and  the  Brahmanas,  are  very  uncertain  histor- 
ical data ; 4  while  sacrifices  destructive  of  life  in  any 

»  Herod.,  V.  5. 

2  Keyser,  Private  Life  of  the  Northmen,  p.  42. 

s  Kalika  Parana,  As.  Res.,  vol.  v. 

*  See,  on  one  hand,  Colebrooke  (I.  61,  62);  Wilson,  in  As.  Jour.,  XVII.;  Roth,  in 


I42  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

form  seldom  appear  in  the  Rig  Veda."1  There  is 
nowhere  any  mention  of  human  sacrifices,  in  dis- 
tinct terms,  in  the  whole  Rig  Veda ;  and  the  only 
evidence  for  even  an  allusion  to  them  rests  on  an 
inference  from  the  later  form  of  one  old  Vedic  legend. 
Sunahsepa,  afterwards  the  centre  of  this  sacrificial 
tale,  is  in  the  Vedic  Hymn  itself  simply  a  prisoner, 
bound  and  in  deadly  peril,  who  is  delivered  through 
his  prayer  to  Varuna,  as  Master  of  life  and  death. 
And  so  the  poet  sings,  "  May  He,  the  far-ruling  One, 
hear  us  without  wrath,  taking  not  away  our  life.  This 
they  say  to  me  day  and  night ;  this  my  own  heart 
teaches  me.  He  whom  the  fettered  Sunahsepa  sought 
in  prayer,  Varuna  our  King,  shall  us  also  free."2 
There  is  no  necessary  allusion  here  to  a  sacrificial 
rite ;  and  the  only  ground  for  supposing  such  refer- 
ence is  in  the  mythic  story  found  in  the  later  Aitareya 
Brahmana ; 3  in  which  Sunahsepa  is  the  son  of  a 
starving  Brahman,  and  bought  for  a  price,  to  be 
offered  to  Varuna,  as  substitute  for  a  certain  prince, 
who,  having  been  devoted  from  his  birth,  is  taking 
this  method  to  ransom  himself  from  the  doom.  Here 
also  Varuna  acts  the  part  not  of  a  destroying,  but  of  a 
preserving  God,  which  is  his  natural  function  in  old 
Hindu  faith.  For  again  and  again  he  defers  exacting 
his  claim  to  the  prince's  life,  and  when  Sunahsepa  is 

Weber's  Ind.  Stud.,  II.  112.  On  the  other,  Miiller's  strongly  expressed  suspicions, 
Sansk.  Lit.,  419,  and  Weber's  additional  illustrations  to  confirm  them,  in  Zeitschr.  d. 
D.  J\I.  G.,  XVIII.  262.  Of  the  two  Vedic  Hymns  concerning  the  Horse  Sacrifice,  "  one  at 
least,"  says  Burnouf,  "  is  certainly  symbolical ;  "  and  Weber  himself  has  shown  {ut  sttpra, 
p.  276)  that  the  long  list  of  persons  of  every  class,  enumerated  as  victims  in  the  Vayasaneyi 
Sanhita,  must  certainly  be,  in  part  if  not  altogether,  of  a  similar  character. 

1  Wilson's  Introd.,  xxiv. 

2  R.  V.,  I.  7,  1,  12;  V.  1,2,7. 

8  See  Miiller's  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  40S ;  Weber's /«a?.  Stud.,  II.  112.  The  myth  of  a  sacri- 
fice of  Purusha,  the  Spirit,  by  the  gods  (R.  V.,  X.  90),  believed  by  Haug  to  prove  the 
existence  of  human  sacrifice  in  the  oldest  time,  is  regarded  by  Muir  as  of  late  origin. 


THE    HYMNS.  I43 

bound  in  his  stead,  at  the  altar,  answers  his  prayer,  as 
in  the  older  legend,  with  deliverance,  bidding  him 
"praise  the  gods  and  so  be  free." 

Here,  however,  it  is  plainly  implied  that  men  were 
sometimes  offered  up  in  these  -post-Vedxc  acres 

r  r  &         Records  of 

of  the  Brahmanas.  The  same  ages  record  ahumansacri- 
substitution  of  the  horse  for  man  as  a  sacrificial  ce' 
victim ;  then  of  the  ox  for  the  horse ;  then  succes- 
sively of  the  sheep,  the  goat,  and  lastly  of  the  earth 
and  its  products.1  These  mythic  intimations  of  what 
was  perhaps  historic  fact  derive  strength  from  anal- 
ogous legends  recorded  of  other  races ;  as  that  of  the 
ram  substituted  for  Isaac  in  the  Hebrew  story,  and  of 
the  hind  received  for  Iphigenia,  by  Diana,  in  the 
Greek.  Manetho  relates  that  Amasis,  King  of  Egypt, 
abolished  the  sacrifices  of  Typhonic  men  at  the  tomb 
of  Osiris,  and  substituted  wax  figures;  and  Ovid,  that 
images  made  of  bulrushes  were  thrown  into  the  Tiber 
in  place  of  the  old  sacrifices  of  living  beings.  Many 
Greek  heroes  are  credited  with  abolishing  this  barbar- 
ity, as  Cecrops,  Hercules,  Theseus.  And  to  Krishna 
in  the  Mahabharata  myth,  who  punishes  it  as  a  crime 
to  have  offered  victims  to  Siva,  corresponds  the  histor- 
ical Mexican  monarch,  who  delivered  Anahuac  from 
similar  rites. 

These  analogies,  however,  do  not  prove  that  the 
custom  in  India  went  back,  as  Haug  has  in- 

i  t  r     i  •         •  01  .  .  .  r     Results. 

sisted,  to  Vedic  times*  buch  testimonies,  if 
mythologic,  may  but  prove  a  consciousness  of  the  in- 
herent cruelty  of  such  forms  of  worship,  and  the  desire 
to  find  far  back  in  antiquity  an  authority  for  discon- 
tinuing them.  They  would  thus  testify  to  a  germ  of 
progress,  even  in  stages  of  social  decay.     That  human 

1  A  itareya  Br&hmana,  as  quoted  by  Miiller. 


144  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

sacrifices  were  offered  in  later  periods  of  Hindu  his- 
tory is  certain ;  but  there  may  well  have  been  an 
earlier  age  when  they  had  not  yet  an  existence,  as 
there  was  for  that  noble  Toltec  civilization  on  the  West- 
ern continent,  whose  pure  and  simple  religion  was  all 
engulfed  in  the  sanguinary  institutions  of  the  Aztecs. 
And  there  is  much  in  the  character  of  Vedic  civiliza- 
tion to  make  us  hesitate,  in  the  present  state  of  the  evi- 
dence, to  believe  that  it  could  have  mingled  immolation 
of  men  with  its  simple  offerings  of  the  product  of  the 
dairy  and  the  plant  of  the  field. 

The  Vedic  gods  were  indeed  believed  to  approve  the 
Different  destruction  of  the  evil-doer  who  offended  their 
forms  of  hu-      Q  i     anj  resisteci  their  claims;  and  to  slay 

man  sacn-      r        r  J 

fice.  "  godless  Dasyus"  was  an  acceptable  service. 

But  this  desire  to  find  a  religious  sanction  for  inflict- 
ing extreme  penalties  on  real  or  imagined  crime  is 
manifestly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  desire  to  please 
the  deity  by  bestowing  on  him  a  human  victim  purely 
as  an  oblation.  The  national  gods  of  the  Hebrew, 
the  Greek,  and  the  Norseman,  were  appealed  to  in 
the  same  way,  as  fully  disposed  to  destroy  their  ene- 
mies, and  to  accept  for  service  such  revenges  as  the 
worshipper  chose  to  inflict  in  their  name,  on  his  own. 
Substantially  the  same  spirit  is  ascribed  to  the  Chris- 
tian God  in  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment,  which 
is  simply  a  refinement  of  the  belief  that  deity  would 
fain  deal  inexorably  with  its  foes,  though  carried  over 
into  the  other  life  and  from  physical  to  eternal  woe. 
It  appears  frequently  in  the  New  Testament,1  and  ap- 
parently comes  from  the  lips  of  Jesus,2  as  well  as  from 
the  intolerant  disciple  he  rebukes.     But  incomparably 

1  Matt.  xxv.  41,  46;  Romans  ix.  17-23;   1  Tim.  1.  20;  Apocalypse,  passim. 

2  Matt.  x.  33;  xii.  32;  xxiii.  33;  xviii.  17,  18,  35;  xxv.  41. 


THE    HYMNS. 


145 


the  worst  form  of  the  inference  that  God  is  pleased  by 
the  severest  punishment  of  crime  is  to  be  found  in 
those  bloody  inquisitions  upon  the  persons  of  heretics 
and  witches,  in  which  Christian  ages  have  certainly 
surpassed  all  others  in  human  history.  Many  in- 
stances in  Hebrew  annals,  mistaken  for  human  sacri- 
fices,1 were  of  this  character.  They  were  in  fact 
barbarous  penalties  inflicted  on  actual  or  supposed 
criminals  :  such  as  "  hewing  "  hostile  kings  in  pieces, 
and  "  hanging  up  "  law-breakers  or  tyrannical  fami- 
lies "before  the  Lord,"  and  "consecrating"  one's  self 
to  Him,  by  putting  to  the  sword  those  who  had 
relapsed  into  idolatry.  They  were  simply  the  earlier 
analogues  of  modern  Christian  rejoicings  over  barbar- 
ous massacres  of  the  heathen  in  India  and  Algeria,  and 
of  Christian  arguments  for  the  death  penalty  as  based 
on  a  commandment  of  God.  In  all  these  cruel  atone- 
ments, the  victim  is  held  to  be  paying  the  penalty  for 
his  sins;  and  they  differ  very  decidedly  from  human 
sacrifices  in  the  proper  sense,  such  as  Jephthah's  offer- 
ing of  his  virgin  daughter,  or  the  abominations  of  Baal 
worship,2  or  the  dreadful  Cher  em,  devoting  to  death  men 
"  not  to  be  redeemed ; " 3  or,  we  may  add,  the  Chris- 
tian "  atonement,"  which  is  of  essentially  similar  nature, 
—  a  death  of  the  best  to  satisfy  divine  justice  for  the 
sin  of  the  worst. 

In  the  former  or  simply  primitive  class  of  sacrifices, 
the  Vedic  age  of  course  abounded ;  though  there  is  no 
evidence  of  special  cruelty  in  their  warfare,  or  special 
barbarism  either  in  dealing  with  offenders,  or  in  grati- 
fying personal  revenge.  Of  distinctive  human  sacri- 
fice there  seems  on  the  whole  to  be  no  positive  proof. 

1  Numbers,  xxv.  4,  13 ;  xxi.  2  ;  1  Sam.  xv.  33  ;  2  Sam.  xxi.  9  ;  Exod.  xxxii.  27,  29. 
See  Mackay,  Progress  of  the  Intellect,  II.  456. 

2  Psalm  cvi.  38;  Ezek.  xx.  31.  »  Levit.  xxvii.  28. 

10 


I46  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

It  is  said  in  a  Hymn  in  praise  of  Vishnu  that  "  men 
Free  bear-  worship  him,  offering  him  their  libation  face 
ing  towards  t0  face."1  And  Agni  is  ever  a  "  companion  " 
and  "  confidant."  We  note  with  especial  inter- 
est this  cordial  freedom  in  the  bearing  of  the  early 
Aryans  towards  their  gods.  Deity  was  the  "  gracious, 
well-beloved  guest "  of  the  householder's  altar  and 
hearth,  invited  to  find  home  there,  to  give  and  receive  ; 
praised  among  the  people  as  their  "  food  and  dwell- 
ing," reverenced  as  a  "  kinsman  "  and  "  friend."  ~  So 
the  Greeks  addressed  the  gods  standing,  and  some- 
times prayed  sitting.  The  Homeric  heroes  converse 
freely  with  the  Olympians,  whose  human  interests  are 
as  profound  and  absorbing  as  their  divine  ;  are  in  fact 
one  and  the  same  thing  with  these.  And  this  was  not 
due  to  irreverence,  or  to  a  low  ideal  of  the  divine.  It 
was  partly  a  form  of  childlike  confidence,  and  partly  a 
manly  self-respect,  to  which  slavishness  was  unknown 
and  impossible.  While  the  religious  sentiment  is  yet 
untaught  by  science,  this  freedom  is  a  strong  defence ; 
and  wherever  in  such  epochs  it  does  not  exist,  there 
must  be  grovelling  fear  before  the  phantoms  of  the 
religious  fancy ;  and  thence  that  blind  intolerance  and 
savage  cruelty  which  befit  the  spiritual  slave. 

It  is  one  of  the  grand  compensations  for  all  er- 
Ourdebtto  rors  involved  in  polytheism,  that  it  consulted 
Polytheism,  individual  liberty  far  more  than  the  stern 
exclusiveness  and  absolute  will  of  monotheism.  Its 
principle  has  been  finely  stated  to  be  the  "  independ- 
ence of  forces."3  The  soul  protects  its  own  right  to 
grow  in  every  direction,  by  creating  a  divine  balance 
of  powers ;    the  basis  of  which  is  in  its  instinct  of 

»  R.  V.,  X.  1,  3.  2  Ibid.,  IV.  1,  20;  VI.  16,  42;  VI.  2.  7,  8;  I.  31,  10. 

8  Menard,  La  Morale  avant  les  Philosophes,  p.  94. 


THE    HYMNS. 


T47 


equal  justice  to  all.     And  thus  while  the  religion  of 
the  monotheistic  Semites,  wherever  it  has  followed  its 
native  instincts,  has  proved  ungenial  to  many  forms  of 
growth,  that  of  the  polytheistic  Aryans   has  been  a 
hearty  tolerance,  inviting  the  full  expansion  of  human 
nature.     But  for  Greek  liberty  and  culture,  Hebrew 
concentration  on  the  Unity  of  God,  descending  through 
its  Christian  modifications,  would,  with  all  the  purity 
of  its  spiritual  ideals,  have  been  to  the  modern  world  a 
legacy  of  moral  bondage  and  intellectual  death.     The 
early  error  had  its  truth,  which  saved  us  from  that 
one-sided   and  narrow  view  of   another  truth,  which 
would   make   it  error.       Faith  in  many  gods  was  in 
fact  a  recognition  of  that  manifoldness  of  expression 
by  which  the  divine  really  becomes  human  ;  and  there- 
fore, in  the  beautiful  and  orderly  path  of  human  evolu- 
tion, it  has  not  been  wanting ;  so  that  we  know  how 
to  worship  The   One  in    fulness  of  free   opportunity 
and  integrity  of  culture.     The  keys  of  progress  were 
not  committed  to  any  single  race  or  religion.     Greek 
and    Jew   alike  were    inspired ;    alike    heard    eternal 
truths,   and  bore    divine  messages  to  the  generations 
whose   day  was  to  be  more  liberal  for  the   mingled 
light  of  this  twofold  dawn.     The  Semite  has  sought 
to  preserve  the  principle  of  authority  in  the  divine ; 
the  Aryan,  that  of  development  in  the  human.     Only 
the  maturer  reason  of  man  could  learn  the  true  mean- 
ing of  both  these  principles  and  their  unity  in  Uni- 
versal Religion. 

The  Hebrew,  or  Christian,  and  the  Aryan  Bibles 
are  very  unlike  each  other.  The  resemblance  of  the 
praises  of  Indra  or  Varuna  to  the  praises  of  Jehovah 
goes,  after  all,  but  a  little  way.  Even  the  Gospel  of 
John,  with  all  its  Alexandrian  inspiration,  is  touched 


I48  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

only  at  certain  points  with  the  creative  religious  im- 
agination of  the  Aryan  mind.  Semitic  ardor  has 
warmed  and  illumined  many  of  the  dark  passages 
of  nature  and  life.  But  the  Rishis  also,  lovers  and 
searchers  of  the  Light,  "  saw  "  what  they  sang.  The 
debt  we  owe  to  the  prophets  and  psalmists  of  Jehovah, 
and  to  the  Christian  ideal,  we  are  not  likely  to  over- 
look or  to  undervalue.  But  we  do  need  to  be  reminded 
of  other  historical  obligations  and  affinities.  The 
monotheist,  whether  of  Athens,  Rome,  or  Palestine, 
was  not  the  sole  parent  of  our  modern  faith.  The 
plastic  susceptibility  which  secures  it  from  permanent 
intolerance,  opening  broad  paths  of  experience  in 
every  direction,  comes,  so  far  as  it  depends  on  the  past, 
of  our  polytheistic  affinities  and  descent.  Our  liberty 
and  our  science,  the  sense  of  free  communion  with  God 
and  Nature  through  principles,  ideas,  laws,  —  are  in 
the  line  of  the  Veda  rather  than  of  the  Thora  or  the 
Gospels.  These  Aryan  children  feel  no  separation 
from  God  through  their  thirst  to  know.  To  them 
deity  is  not  apart  from  man,  but  in  him,  revealed  in 
the  free  play  of  his  own  energies.  They  look  straight 
at  the  facts  with  their  own  eyes,  not  as  aliens,  and  under 
ban ;  no  sense  of  a  "  fall  "  comes  in  between  to  dis- 
able the  natural  sight,  nor  is  miracle  made  to  dispar- 
age the  familiar  facts  of  life ;  no  exclusive  incarnation 
limits  the  divine  meaning  of  Nature  as  a  whole  ;  no 
external  authority  judges  or  supplants  free  thought, 
aspiration,  pursuit  of  truth.  The  modern  spirit  recog- 
nizes its  own  features  here  in  their  infancy.  This  is 
plainly  the  inextinguishable  spark  that  has  flamed  at 
last  into  our  free  arts  and  sciences  and  beliefs,  and 
shines  with  steady  radiance  in  the  civilization  that 
issues  in  such  diverse  types  of  universality  as  Goethe 


THE    HYMNS.  I49 

and  Humboldt  and  Emerson.  And  for  the  germs  of 
this  our  larger  opportunity,  which  guarantees  wisdom 
and  gladness  to  man's  present  and  future  thought ;  of 
his  genial  outlook  upon  life  as  a  home,  and  his  fearless 
hospitality  to  its  forces  and  laws;  of  the  home-born 
courage  to  use  all  faculties  and  open  all  paths ;  of 
the  assurance  that  we  are  not  slaves  of  prescription, 
whether  to  person,  creed,  or  distinctive  religion,  but 
natural  heirs  to  universal  truth  ;  of  the  self-respect 
whose  religion  is  rational,  and  the  liberty  whose  ideal 
is  endless  progress,  —  we  must  go  back  to  the  frank 
Aryan  herdsman,  inviting  his  gods  to  sit  as  guests 
beside  him  on  his  heap  of  Kusa-grass. 


IV. 

TRADITION. 


TRADITION. 


"  A  ND  Brahma  said  to  Manu,  '  Divide  the  Veda,  O 
"^~^-  Sage  !  The  age  is  changed ;  the  strength,  the 
fire  is  gone  down ;  every  thing  is  on  the  path  of 
decay.' "  This  passage  from  the  Vayu  Purana  shows 
us  that  the  later  Hindus  were  not  without  perception 
of  the  causes  which  brought  three  ritualistic  Script- 
ures out  of  the  simple  Rig  Veda  Hymns. 

The  spontaneity  of  a  germinant  faith  greets  us  only 
to  disappear.  We  are  to  pass  from  primitive  Limits  of 
Aryan  piety  along  a  track,  such  as  every  re-  deseneracy- 
ligion  has  seemed  fated  to  tread ;  wherein  we  should 
find  bitter  discouragement,  as  being  led  ever  further 
from  the  promise  of  the  morning,  were  not  every 
lapse  the  guarantee  of  a  coming  self-recovery  of 
human  nature,  the  nobler  for  the  depth  of  the  apparent 
fall.  We  shall  see  this  social  equality  exchanged  for 
the  complex  hierarchy  of  caste ;  this  liberty  of  private 
worship  for  the  despotism  of  an  official  priesthood ; 
this  inspiration  for  the  pedantic  echoes  of  past  reve- 
lations, themselves  regarded  as  but  mediators  of  a 
yet  older  gospel,  —  those  same  manly  Hymns  which 
we  have  just  now  admired  as  made  to  rebuke,  not 
to  compel,  a  servile  fear.  We  shall  see  this  genial 
practical  vigor  yield   to  expiatory  sacrifices   and  the 


154  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

terrors  of  transmigration ;  this  freedom  of  the  moun- 
taineer to  the  enervation  of  dreamers  among  tropical 
banyans  and  palms.  In  a  word,  we  shall  note  a  two- 
fold degeneracy,  caused  by  the  forces  of  Ecclesiastical 
Organization  and  Physical  Nature. 

But  this  is  by  no  means  a  full  account  of  the  process  ; 
and  that  we  may  deal  fair  measure  in  our  interpreta- 
tion of  it,  we  must  be  able  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of 
these  remote  civilizations,  as  we  would  enter  into  the 
inner  life  of  a  new  personality,  to  do  it  justice  for  its 
own  sake. 

At  the  outset  then,  let  us  appreciate  that  Worship 
_.  of  Tradition,   which  lies  at  the  root  of  Ori- 

Onental  J 

worship  of  ental  faith.  It  is  not  to  be  judged  by  the 
patent  vices  of  modern  traditionalism,  whose 
preference  of  outworn,  lifeless  finalities  to  an  ever-open 
spirit  of  inquiry  is  not  a  foundation  of  faith,  but  a  form 
of  unbelief.  This  is  a  trailing  shadow,  flowing  away 
from  the  living  substance  of  worship.  But,  whatever 
else  was  wanting  to  it,  Oriental  veneration  for  the  Past 
was  at  least  a  fervent  and  supreme  faith.  That  pro- 
found absorption  in  religious  sentiment  which  we  saw 
in  the  Veda  is  typical  of  the  whole  mind  of  these 
Eastern  races.  Their  tradition-worship  was  a  rude 
form  of  reverence  for  the  Eternal :  it  was  awe  before 
evcrlastingness.  They  built  their  temples  and  hewed 
out  their  caves  and  their  rock  statues  on  a  scale  that 
should  symbolize  this  awe.  It  was  because  the  religious 
books,  rites,  legends,  hymns,  seemed  as  old  as  the 
stars  and  streams  and  patriarchal  trees,  and  memory 
went  not  back  to  their  beginnings,  that  they  were  held 
sacred.  Their  permanence  belittled  the  fleeting  lives, 
the  vanishing  dreams  and  deeds  of  men  :  it  did  not 
minister  to  their  vanity,  but  to  their  humility.     Man 


TRADITION. 


155 


could  have  had  things  so  ancient  and  so  stable,  only 
of  God.  If  the  hoary  head  was  believed  the  patri- 
archal chrism,  the  visible  sign  of  divine  appointment 
to  the  oldest  priesthood,  much  more  should  God  be 
present  in  words  white  with  the  love  and  awe  of  un- 
told generations ;  words  which  could  no  more  come  to 
death  than  they  could  be  traced  back  to  any  mortal 
birth.  The  earliest  sense  of  immortality  came,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  the  feeling  of  a  continuous  existence 
traceable  through  the  pitris  or  progenitors,  and  in  the 
aspiration  to  become  one  with  them  in  their  inviolable 
home ;  for  the  serene  silence  of  the  past  in  which 
they  dwelt  was  a  fit  shrine  to  hold  the  moral  and 
spiritual  idealism  of  their  descendants.  "The  pitris," 
according  to  this  faith,  "are  free  from  wrath,  intent 
on  purity,  without  sensual  passion ;  primeval  divini- 
ties, who  have  laid  strife  aside."1  It  was  a  worship 
founded  in  gratitude,  the  apotheosis  of  the  tenderest 
sentiments.  "A  parent's  care  in  producing  and  rear- 
ing children,"  says  the  law,  "cannot  be  compensated 
in  a  hundred  years."2  This  authority  of  ideal  love 
and  duty  penetrated  all  worlds.  Even  the  gods  could 
not  turn  recreant  to  the  past,  and  forsake  their  duties 
to  progenitors,  without  penalty :  they  were  even  in- 
voked by  the  priests,  in  sacrifice,  by  the  names  of  their 
special  ancestry.3 

Under  such  conditions,  Bibliolatry  deserves  a  cer- 
tain  respect.      As   these    old  Vedic    Hymns,  „ 

•1  '    .Reverence 

in  process  of  time,   came  to  be  collected,  ar-  for  the 
ranged,  and  enlarged  into  Samaveda  and  Yajur-  Vedas' 
veda  for  purposes  of  ritual    service,  we  note  indeed 
the  failure  of  inspiration,  and  the  growth  of  ecclesias- 

1  Manu,  III.  192.  2  ibid.,  II.  227. 

3  Miiiler,  Sa?iskrit  Literature,  p.  386. 


156  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

ticism  ;  yet  there  is  something  tender  as  well  as  noble  in 
the  faithfulness  with  which  the  Hindu  cherished  them 
as  "  reminiscences  of  a  former  state  ;  "  x  as  "  words 
heard  from  above,"2  committed  to  him  by  a  long  line 
of  ancestors,  who  still  sought  him  with  yearning  care, 
and  who  were  cherished  with  the  whole  strength  of 
his  affections ;  their  primitive  Sanskrit  the  very  lan- 
guage of  God  ;  their  syllables  so  full  of  virtue  that  they 
needed  not  to  be  uttered  or  even  understood,  only  silently 
whispered  in  the  heart ;  yet  every  one  of  them  laden 
with  ineffable  meanings,  which  endless  commentaries 
sought  in  vain  to  exhaust ;  laden  with  Brahmanas, 
Upanishads,  Sutras,  Puranas ;  literally  a  thousand 
schools  of  biblical  science  founded  on  their  mooted 
texts ;  wells  of  theology,  literature,  science,  legisla- 
tion, for  ever  brimming,  let  never  so  much  be  drawn 
off  from  age  to  age.3  It  is  but  a  childish  thought  of 
everlastingness ;  but  this  child  is  Humanity  !  Then 
how  colossal  that  outgrowth  of  the  intuition,  how  utter 
that  faith,  how  prodigal  that  toil  in  its  service  !  And 
if  age  be  indeed  venerable,  surely  there  was  better 
ground  for  such  Bibliolatry  than  for  any  other  that 
has  ever  existed.  What  records,  what  institutions,  can 
be  called  time-hallowed  by  the  side  of  these?  When 
Solon  boasted  of  the  antiquity  of  Greek  wisdom,  the 
old  priest  of  Sais  led  him  through  the  sepulchral 
chambers,  showed  him  the  tombs  of  a  hundred  dynas- 

1  The  Ved&nta.  2  Manu. 

s  Manu  (XII.  94-102)  declares  the  Vedas  "an  eye  giving  constant  light,  not  made  by 
man,  nor  to  be  measured  by  his  powers.  All  that  has  been,  is,  or  shall  be,  is  revealed 
by  them  ;  all  creatures  are  sustained,  all  authority  is  imparted,  all  prosperity  given,  by  the 
knowledge  of  these,  which  burns  out  the  taint  of  sin,  and  makes  one  approach  the  divine 
nature  though  he  sojourns  in  this  low  world."  —  "Brahma  has  milked  out  of  them  three 
holy  letters,  —  A.  U.  M.  ;  three  mystic  words,  —  Earth,  Sky,  Heaven  ;  three  sacred  meas- 
ures of  verse,  —  the  Gayatri :  and  these  immutable  things,  the  essence  of  this  wisdom  that 
was  from  the  beginning,  shall  be  sanctity  and  salvation  to  him  who  ceaselessly  utters  them 
with  faith."     II.  74-S4. 


TRADITION.  157 

ties,  recounted  to  him  the  annals  of  nine  thousand 
years,  and  admonished  him  that  he  was  but  a  child, 
that  there  lived  no  aged  Greek.  "  You  have  no  re- 
mote tradition,  O  Solon,  nor  any  discipline  that  is 
hoary  with  age."  What  must  the  pandits  of  Benares 
think  of  the  Christian  missionary,  who  would  supplant 
their  veneration  for  the  Sanskrit  Vedas  by  claiming  that 
divine  guardianship  has  transmitted  his  Greek  or  even 
his  Hebrew  Scriptures?  Wherein  is  his  advantage? 
Is  not  every  Bible  a  cup  that  holds  what  the  drinker 
wills?  "  Every  one  who  pleases,"  says  the  Dabistan, 
"  may  derive  from  the  Vedas  arguments  in  favor  of 
his  particular  creed,  to  such  a  degree  that  they  can 
support  by  clear  proofs  the  philosophical,  mystical, 
unitarian,  and  atheistical  systems;  Hinduism,  Judaism, 
Christianity,  Fire-worship,  the  tenets  of  the  Sonites  or 
Shiites  ;  in  short,  these  volumes  consist  of  such  ingen- 
ious parables  and  sublime  meanings,  that  all  who 
seek  may  find  their  wishes  fulfilled."1 

A  mature,  self-conscious  generation  cannot  compete 
with  races  of  instinctive  faith,  upon  their  own  ground, 
without  making  itself  more  childish  than  they.  Its 
own  liberty  to  inquire  and  grow  is  what  represents,  in 
a  nobler  way,  that  very  authority  of  age  which  tradi- 
tion-worship but  dimly  divined.  Nature  is  older  than 
ritual  or  Bible,  and  the  personality  of  Man  more  ven- 
erable, even  with  years,  than  all  his  "  special  revela- 
tions." We  cannot  forsake  the  insight  nor  the  tasks 
of  the  man  for  the  unquestioning  credence  of  the  child. 
But  in  the  child  we  none  the  less  admire  a  tender 
respect  for  age.  We  recognize  the  "trailing  cloud  of 
glory  ;  "  a  .filial  instinct  towards  eternity ;  an  inborn 
sense  of  our  affinity  with  imperishable  life. 

1  Dabistati,  ch.  II.  2. 


158  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

To  the  unfolding  consciousness  of  the  race  as  of  the 

individual,  the  first  great  mystery  is  memory. 

its  divine     All   dear   and   honored  things  pass    into   one 

function.         gilent  but  lJvJng  fo^    an(J  j^g     awajt    the     calJ 

that  evokes  them  from  their  sleep.  There  death  is 
incessantly  overcome,  and  swallowed  up  in  resur- 
rection. In  this  light  of  endless  preservation  and 
renovation  the  fact  of  immortality  is  first  revealed. 
Meofasthenes  tells  us  that  no  monuments  were  erected 
in  India  to  the  dead,  because  the  people  believed  that 
their  virtues  would  make  them  immortal  in  the  memory 
of  -posterity.  We  are  far  away  now  from  those  days 
when  man  bent  in  natural  wonder  before  this  experi- 
ence of  renewal.  The  memory  is,  for  us,  one  of  many 
faculties,  into  which  our  science  has  analyzed  the 
mind,  and  with  which  we  have  grown  but  too  familiar 
as  human  instruments  to  venerate  them  as  mysteries  of 
power.  But  to  the  awakening  soul  it  was  the  wonder 
of  wonders,  the  power  of  powers.  (_It  might  well  be, 
as  it  was,  the  earliest  purely  spiritual  deity  of  the  hu- 
man race.  It  was  the  only  preserver  of  man's  "  winged 
words,"  the  only  conductor  between  his  past  and  his 
future ;  and  its  stupendous  achievements  were  at  once 
result  and  warrant  of  the  reverent  culture  it  received. 
For  many  centuries  the  treasures  of  human  experi- 
ence, of  hymn,  meditation,  and  ritual,  accumulating 
from  remotest  time,  were  in  its  keeping  alone ;  and 
the  immense  deposit  was  transmitted  more  faithfully 
than  by  the  later  devices  of  writing  and  printing. 
The  prophet  was  "the  rememberer,"  the  "bearer  on" 
of  an  ancient  message.  Never  to  forget  was  the  most 
sacred  and  tender  duty.  The  Greeks  preserved  Homer 
in  their  memory  alone  for  four  hundred  years.  Down 
to  the  time  of  Buddha  there  is  no  positive  evidence  of 


TRADITION. 


*59 


a  written  Sanskrit.  Veda  does  not  mean  Scriptures, 
does  not  mean  Bible,  or  Book  at  all,  but,  more  spiritu- 
ally, Wisdom.  The  Hindus  know  no  dearer  name 
for  it  than  "  Words  remembered  from  the  beginning." 
Through  indefinite  ages  this  whole  literature  was 
transmitted  in  this  invisible  way,  by  means  of  inces- 
sant mnemonic  practice,1  and  guarded  from  the  dese- 
crating hand  of  the  penman,  even  after  the  introduction 
of  writing,  by  stern  prohibitions  as  well  as  by  traditional 
contempt.  And  it  has  been  finely  suggested  that  the 
ample  satisfaction  afforded  to  every  need  of  intellectual 
and  religious  communication,  by  their  splendid  culture 
of  the  memory,  may  have  prevented  the  early  Hindus 
from  inventing  a  written  alphabet;  an  achievement 
which  other  races,  such  as  the  Chinese,  Egvptians, 
and  Hebrews,  owed  to  their  inability  to  mature  this 
more  intellectual  instrument.2  In  Plato's  Egyptian 
myth  in  the  Phasdrus,  the  god  who  invents  letters  as  a 
medicine  for  memory  is  told  that  he  is  doing  detri- 
ment to  the  mind,  by  teaching  men  to  remember  out- 
wardly by  means  of  foreign  marks,  instead  of  inwardly, 
by  their  own  faculties.  We  can  at  least  admire  the 
fine  economy  of  Nature,  in  opening  the  resources  of 
this  faculty  in  men,  while  as  yet  science  had  not  se- 
cured other  means  of  preserving  and  transmitting 
thought.  How  should  we  ever,  in  this  age  of  discon- 
tinuous reading  and  ephemeral  journalism,  —  chopped 
feed  for  ruining  these  powers,  —  come  to  realize,  as 
Muller  has  well  suggested,  how  vast  they  are?J) 

Thus  even  Oriental  worship  of  tradition  has  its  own 
proper  root  in  human  nature,  and  its  noble  germs  also 


1  See  Muller's  account  of  such  exercises  in  Hindu  schools,  Satisk.  Lit.,  p.  504. 
s  Pictet,  II.  55S. 


l6o  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

of  future  dignities  ;  nor  had  those  children  of  memory- 
turned  their  faces,  like  our  religious  traditionalists, 
coldly  and  unbelievingly  to  a  dead  Past. 

And  so,  when  we  see  the  Hindu  slowly  elaborating 
his  minute  ritualism  1  in  that  still  life  along  the 

Oriental  rit- 

uaiisman  Ganges,  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago,  until 
ideal-  he  had  transferred,  out  of  his  brooding  thought 
of  the  Everlasting,  its  inviolable  permanence  into  all 
works  and  ways,  we  cannot  permit  any  superstition 
or  puerility  involved  in  it  to  hide  the  fact  that  it  brings 
also  its  incentives  to  respect  for  human  nature.  That 
hypocrisy  and  sanctimony  were  quite  as  possible  in 
this  as  in  any  other  religious  form,  is  palpable ;  but 
the  essence  of  Oriental  ritualism  was  certainly  reality. 
The  absorbed  ascetic,  girt  with  sacrificial  cord,  gesticu- 
lating before  animals  and  plants,  bowing  to  his  platter, 
walking  round  it,  wetting  his  eyes,  shutting  his  nos- 
trils and  mouth  by  turns,  muttering  spells  as  in  a 
dream,  performing  his  three  suppressions  of  the  breath, 
whispering  the  three  sacred  letters,  pronouncing  at 
intervals  the  three  holy  words  and  measures,2  is  to 
nature,  reason,  and  common  sense,  in  many  ways,  an 
unedifying  spectacle  ;  yet,  as  compared  with  much 
modern  formalism  of  a  less  detailed  and  visible  sort, 
he  will  compel  a  serious  moral  esteem.  "These 
Hindu  gesticulations,"  says  Professor  Wilson,3  w  are 
not  subjects  of  ridicule,  because  reverentially  prac- 
tised by  men  of  sense  and  learning."  That  quaint 
writer,  James  Howell,  the  contemporary  of  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  whom  he  in  many  ways  resembled,  tells  us 
frankly  I  "  I  knock  thrice  every  day  at  heaven's  gate, 

1  See  the  microscopic  regulation  of  times,  rites,  food,  and  auguries  detailed  in  the  first 
book  of  Yajnavalkya's  Law  Code,  and  the  fifth  of  Manu. 

2  Manu-,  II.  74.  8  Essays  on  Hindu  Religion,  II.  57. 


TRADITION.  l6l 

besides  prayers  at  meals,  and  other  occasional  ejacu- 
lations, as  upon  the  putting  on  of  a  clean  shirt,  wash- 
ing my  hands,  and  lighting  the  candles.  And  as  I 
pray  thrice  a  day,  so  I  fast  thrice  a  week,"  &c.  These 
quaint  devotions,  somewhat  in  the  Oriental  spirit, 
may  help  us  to  distinguish  the  idea  which  its  round 
of  observances  sought  to  embody,  from  the  formal- 
ism of  mercantile  piety  that  pays  off  a  business-like 
God  at  a  fixed  rate,  in  days,  words,  and  rites;  set- 
ting apart  for  this  exalted  Personage,  a  Church,  a 
Bible,  an  abstract  morality,  that  it  may  keep  its  houses, 
trades,  politics,  and  practical  prudence  for  quite  other 
dedications.  Oriental  ceremonial  was  at  least  essen- 
tially an  effort  to  cover  the  whole  of  life  with  divine 
relation.  It  was  recognized  that  the  primacy  of  relig- 
ion did  not  cease  at  some  given  point,  where  men 
may  have  chosen  to  draw  the  line.  That  is  not  relig- 
ion whose  outward  law  and  set  plan  fastens  on  us 
like  a  thumb-screw,  is  endured  as  penance,  and  gladly 
thrown  off  to  escape  the  pain  and  awkwardness  of  its 
constraints.  Relations  which  are  affirmed  in  theory 
to  be  unnatural,  and  shown  in  practice  to  be  so  by 
systematic  evasion,  have  certainly  little  to  do  with 
either  faith  or  freedom. 

Behind  the  dreary  ceremonialism  of  the  old  relig- 
ions, there  is  the  aspiration  of  an  ideal.  The  despot- 
ism of  priestcraft  does  not  explain  such  phenomena 
as  the  requirements  of  Burmese  law,  that  a  priest 
when  eating  shall  inwardly  say,  "  I  eat  not  to  please 
my  palate,  but  to  support  life  ;  "  when  dressing,  "  I  put 
on  these  robes,  not  to  be  vain  of  them,  but  to  conceal 
my  nakedness ; "  and  in  taking  medicine,  "  I  desire 
recovery,   only  that  I   may  be  the   more  diligent  in 


1 62  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

devotion." 1  That  minute  regulation  of  the  form, 
whether  inward  or  outward,  in  which  we  should  find 
the  death  not  of  spontaneity  only,  but  of  sincerity, 
must  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  permanent  habit 
of  the  Oriental  mind,  which  in  each  individual  was 
itself,  more  or  less,  a  constant  reproduction  of  the 
original  meaning  of  the  precept.  The  instinctive 
demand  for  enduring  things  required  that  the  whole 
of  life  should  reflect  divine  unchangeableness,  from 
the  largest  relations  to  the  least.  There  must  be 
nothing  hurried,  erratic,  impulsive  :  all  must  be  fixed 
and  serene,  an  image  of  brooding  deity.  Human 
action  had  surer  determination  than  the  impulses  of 
the  moment.  Fate  was  the  dearest  of  divinities  to  these 
contemplative  minds,  because  it  expressed  this  idea  of 
an  unalterable  path,  and  satisfied  this  instinctive  yearn- 
ing for  absolute  devotion  to  the  religious  ideal.  Where 
reason  has  not  yet  come  to  its  sure  revolt  against  im- 
plicit faith,  men  move  in  the  chains  of  habit,  which  they 
themselves  have  forged,  with  slight  sense  of  bondage, 
and  without  the  moral  degradation  which  always 
enters  with  enforced  conformity.  There  is  freedom 
in  spontaneity,  even  of  Religious  Form. 

It  is  generally  allowed  that  the  Oriental  races  wear 
their  robes  of  ceremony,  whether  in  worship 

Its  freedom.  .  -,11  1 

or  in  manners,  with  real  ease,  and  even  a 
strange  grace,  in  spite  of  endless  petty  elaboration. 
"There  is  more  civility  and  grace  among  all  classes 
in  India,"  we  are  told,  "  than  in  corresponding  classes 
in  Europe  and  America."2  This  is  because  their 
etiquette  is  spontaneous,  without  doubleness  and  self- 
rebuke  in  the  person,  a  wholeness,  a  genuine  faith. 

1  Malcom,  Travels  in  Burmah.  2  Allen's  India,  p.  483. 


TRADITION.  163 

Manners  are  here  a  part  of  religion,  and  common 
actions  grow  punctilious  from  an  instinctive  sense 
of  accord  with  the  ideal  form.  There  is,  I  doubt 
not,  a  kind  of  freshness  and  even  freedom  in  the 
Hebrew  boy,  as  he  binds  the  thongs  of  his  tephillin 
seven  times  round  his  wrist,  and  thrice  round  his 
finger,  and  repeats  the  formularies  over  every  bit  of 
food,  and  at  sight  of  every  change  that  passes 
over  the  face  of  Nature,  and  on  the  "enjoyment  of 
any  new  thing."1  For  the  Hebrew  still  retains  in  some 
measure  the  infantile  faith  in  forms  as  the  natural 
body  of  piety,  and  in  piety  which  clothes  the  whole 
of  life  in  a  time-hallowed  ritual.  It  is  not  Form  as 
such  that  is  ungracious,  constrained,  or  undevout,  but 
forms  that  do  not  express  the  life  in  its  unity#and 
integrity.  In  the  instinctive  ease  and  freedom  of 
Oriental  routine  there  is  even  an  image,  not  so  faint 
as  to  be  insignificant,  of  that  perfect  liberty  of  the 
wise  and  just  person,  whose  every  act  is  unconditional, 
inevitable,  precise  as  the  planet's  sweep. 

"  Slight  those  who  say,  amidst  their  sickly  healths, 
Thou  livest  by  rule.     What  doth  not  so,  but  man  ? 
Houses  are  built  by  rule,  and  commonwealths. 
Entice  the  hasty  sun,  if  but  you  can, 
From  his  ecliptic  line  :  beckon  the  sky ! 
Who  lives  by  rule  then,  keeps  good  company." 

There  is  a  self-idolatry  of  passions  and  cupidi- 
ties, a  failure  of  respect  for  great  social  and  moral 
traditions  of  civilization,  on  which  order  and  culture, 
as  well  as  purity  and  decency  stand,  that  would  remand 
us  to  infinitely  worse  barbarism  than  all  the  tradition- 
worship  of  the  older  races  combined. 

1  See  Instructions  in  the  Mosaic  Religion,  from  the  German  of  Johlson  (Philadelphia, 
1S30),  p.  112. 


164  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

The  ritualism  of  Eastern  devotees  is  of  course  not 
the  intelligent  freedom  of  living  according  to  universal 
laws  of  culture  and  use.  But  at  least  the  ease,  preci- 
sion, and  minute  perfection  of  both,  flow  alike  from 
free  surrender  of  the  whole  life  to  the  ideal  faith ; 
though  this  faith  be  ever  so  different  in  the  two  cases, 
and  though  in  the  one  case  the  principle  itself  be  but 
germinant,  in  the  other  mature. 

When  we  recognize  therefore  that  in  all  the  history 
The  protest  °f  religious  forms  there  is  nothing  like  Hindu 
of  thought,  ritualism  for  complexity,  thoroughness,  and 
rigor,  we  really  concede  to  this  people  a  certain  pre- 
eminent integrity  in  its  religious  conviction.  We 
have  here  in  fact  a  great,  all-surrounding  abstract 
idea;  admitting  no  exception,  no  evasion,  no  com- 
promise, no  practical  limit.  It  is  the  first  product  of 
that  pure  brain-work  which  makes  the  inward  life 
of  the  Aryans  of  the  Ganges.  In  their  clime  of  beat- 
ing suns  and  towering  forests,  one  element  of  the  old 
Iranian  energy  made  vigorous  protest  against  the 
forces  of  physical  nature,  — the  intellectual  element. 
It  would  create  after  its  own  vast-  aspiration,  even 
though  it  were  in  idea  only.  Of  the  manifold  beauty 
and  wealth  of  which  this  dream-life  was  capable,  the 
whole  history  of  Hindu  poetry,  from  the  Vedas  to  the 
Puranas,  is  the  impressive  record.  In  philosophy  and 
religion,  the  contemplative  faculty  produced  yet  more 
marvellous  results.  Its  grasp  on  pure  ideas  was  ex- 
traordinary, and  its  faith  in  living  by  them  absolute. 
It  was  bound  to  take  the  whole  of  life  into  its  mighty 
impulse  to  create  and  rule.  It  was  bound  to  construct 
all  forms  of  action  in  the  image  of  its  own  eternity ;  a 
world  whose  very  freedom  should  be  in  the  absolute- 
ness  of  its   sure   and  perfect  ways.     So  that  in  the 


TRADITION.  165 

absence  of  that  struggle  with  practical  conditions  and 
for  visible  uses  which  educates  us  to  independence 
and  progress,  ritualism,  all-pervading  and  all-ordain- 
ing, became  the  natural  language  of  its  ideal ;  the 
more  so  in  proportion  as  it  sought  to  organize  itself  in 
a  Brahmanical  or  other  ecclesiastical  communion. 

For  how  insignificant  and  impotent  would  the  indi- 
vidual come  to  appear,  seen  through  this  absorbing 
vision  of  everlastingness.  Heart-deadening  asceticism 
was  but  a. natural  result.  But  let  us  remember  that 
all  real  self-abnegation,  though  it  may  fail  of  due  bal- 
ance from'  the  practical  and  social  energies,  none  the 
less  truly  involves  the  substance  of  practical  virtue. 
And  its  upward  aim  surely  deserves  our  thoughtful 
study,  as  an  element  of  universal  religion,  however 
the  mist  of  dreams  rolled  in  between  it  and  the  goal 
it  sought. 


V. 

THE     LAWS. 


THE     LAWS     OF     MANU. 


"\T  7HEN  Vedic  inspiration  ceased,  there  came  ages 

*  *     of  organized  traditional   religion.     To  Growth  of 

the  Mantras,  or  Hymns  of  seers,  succeeded  the  ecfesiastI- 

J  cal  mstitu- 

Brahmanas,  or  theological  homilies  about  the  tiara, 
hymns ;  explanations  of  the  sacrifices  and  rituals, 
definitions  of  faith,  directions  for  efficacious  use 
of  formulas  in  prayer.  They  are  the  work  of  a 
priestly  class,  gradually  formed  by  the  development 
of  the  old  patriarchal  or  family  religion  into  close 
clans  or  fraternities,  with  distinct  functions  in  the  ritual ; 
and  dealing  for  the  most  part,  naturally  enough,  in 
quite  spiritless  pedantry  and  verbiage,  ringing  changes 
on  "  revealed  texts  "  with  superstitious  and  pompous 
verbal  commentary,  after  the  manner  of  biblical  func- 
tionaries everywhere.  Miiller  has  traced  this  tradi- 
tionalism even  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Vedic  period, 
busily  at  work  arranging  and  combining  the  hymns 
for  ceremonial  purposes.1  Gradually  priestly  author- 
ity became  elaborated  in  the  caste-system,  and  ex- 
pressed itself  in  ideals  of  legislation.  These  were 
based  in  part  on  natural  wants  of  the  social  organiza- 
tion, and  in  part  on  the  logic  of  the  religious  idea,  as 

1  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  456.     There  were  more  than  twenty  of  these  old  clans,  out  of  which 
sacerdotal  families  were  developed. 


I70  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

traditionally  received,  and  developed  by  its  represen- 
tative class.  Doubtless  there  were  many  such  codes, 
emanating  from  different  priestly  schools  and  fellow- 
ships;1 but  their  ecclesiastical  compilers  could  hardly 
have  possessed  the  means  of  imposing  them  upon  the 
population  of  India.  It  is  probable  therefore  that  they 
were  carried  into  practice  only  in  so  far  as  they  really 
embodied  popular  customs  and  beliefs.  Their  devel- 
opment, too,  must  have  been  very  slow ;  and  many 
ages  must  have  elapsed  before  so  vast  an  edifice  of 
rules  and  relations  could  have  been  constructed,  even 
in  theory,  as  we  find  presented,  with  a  serene  and 
simple  absolutism,  as  if  by  universal  consent  of  gods 
and  men,  in  the  Dharmasastra  of  the  Manavas,  com- 
monly called  the  Laws  of  Manu. 

This  serene  self-assurance,  in  fact,  rested  upon  pub- 
lic recognition.  Law  itself,  we  must  remember,  was 
originally  but  the  mandate  of  religious  sentiment,  and 
the  oldest  legislation  was  everywhere  honestly  as- 
cribed to  the  gods ;  for  these  ruder  ages  heard  secret 
whispers  of  an  eternal  truth,  on  the  acceptance  and 
right  following  of  which  depends  the  life  of  the  latest 
and  freest  states. 

It  is  still  undetermined  at  what  period  the  theolog- 
Aeofth  lcal>  moral,  political,  and  social  ideal  of  the 
code  of  Brahmanical  schools  became  embodied  in  this 
code.  It  has  been  usual,  ever  since  its  trans- 
lation by  Sir  William  Jones,  in  1794-j2  to  place  it  next 
in  antiquity  to  the  three  oldest  Vedas,  as  one  of  the 
few  great  landmarks  of  Hindu  literature ;  and  most 
Orientalists  have  dated  it  somewhere  between  the 
eighth    and  thirteenth  centuries  before  the  Christian 

1  Parishads  and  Charanas.     See  Miiller,  Sansk.  Lit. 
8  The  version  here  used. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  171 

era.1  Yet  other  recent  scholars  find  the  evidences  pf 
this  great  antiquity  inadequate,  and  hold  its  date  to  be 
altogether  unknown,  the  most  eminent  of  these  being 
Max  Miiller. 

It  is  certain  that  Greek  authors,  from  the  time  of 
Alexander,  agree  that  Hindu  courts  appealed  to  no 
written  codes ;  though  Lassen  may  be  correct  in  his 
suggestion  that  their  references  are  to  special  occa- 
sions only,  and  do  not  prove  that  such  written  laws 
were  not  in  existence.  It  must  be  allowed,  too,  that 
legislative  codes  depend  on  the  current  use  of  writing  ; 
and  this  cannot  be  traced  back  in  India  beyond  the 
age  ascribed  to  Buddha.  True,  a  wonderful  develop- 
ment of  the  memory  supplied  the  place  of  books ;  and 
as  the  Vedic  hymns  were  'preserved  by  oral  tradition 
alone  for  centuries,  so,  doubtless,  were  definite  social 
customs  and  rules.  But  a  code  so  elaborate  as  this, 
embodying  the  whole  Brahmanical  system  in  its  de- 
veloped form  and  full  application  to  all  branches  of 
human  conduct,  would  imply  a  common  understand- 
ing of  relations  and  duties   for  which  written   docu- 

1  This  is  the  view  of  such  eminent  authorities  as  Lassen  and  Burnouf,  as  well  as  of 
Koeppen  in  his  very  thorough  investigations  into  the  history  of  Buddhism  ;  and  Weber's 
exhaustive  researches  into  the  literature  of  India  result  m  the  judgment  that  it  is  the  oldest 
of  the  numerous  Hindu  Codes.  The  grounds  of  this  general  agreement  are  given  by 
Dvmcker,  Geschichte  d.  Alterthums.,  II.  pp.  96,  97.  The  following  is  a  summary:  The 
oldest  Buddhist  Sutras  describe  a  more  developed  stage  of  Brahmanism  in  many  respects 
than  this  code,  and  must  therefore  have  a  later  origin  :  yet  they  are  traceable  far  back 
beyond  the  Christian  era.  It  is  probably  cited  in  the  Buddhist  legends  and  in  the  Mahab- 
harata.  It  is  cognizant  of  only  three  Vedas,  while  the  Buddhist  Sutras  are  acquainted 
with  the  late%t  Veda  also.  It  contains  no  allusion  to  Buddhism  by  name,  and  makes  only 
general  reference  to  rationalists  who  denied  the  Veda,  as  was  in  fact  done  by  many  schools 
previous  to  Buddha.  It  knows  nothing  of  the  worship  of  Siva,  familiar  to  Buddhist 
Sutras  ;  nothing  of  that  of  Vishnu-Krishna,  —  its  only  allusion  to  Vishnu  being  in  a  pas- 
sage of  doubtful  antiquity,  and  this  after  a  purely  Vedic  manner,  —  nothing  finally  of  the 
epic  heroes,  while  it  freely  mentions  kings  famous  in  the  Vedic  age.  Finally,  its  geo- 
graphical knowledge  extends  no  farther  than  the  Viudhya  Mountains,  though  the  Aryans 
had  conquered  much  of  Southern  India  long  before  our  era.  See  Lassen,  I.  800;  Bur- 
nouf, Introd.  a  VHist.  du  Bonddhisme,  p.  133;  Koeppen,  I.  38;  Weber,  Vorlesungen., 
p.  242-244.     Wilson,  Introd.  to  Rig  Veda,  places  it  as  early  as  the  fifth  century  B.C. 


172  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

ments  appear  absolutely  necessary.  And  the  use  of 
such  documentary  form  for  systems  or  ideals  of  jurispru- 
dence was  not  likely  to  have  been  undertaken  in  India, 
until  a  comparatively  late  period ;  both  because  of  the 
general  dislike  for  written  teachings  and  because  all 
authoritative  priesthoods  are  disinclined  to  limit  them- 
selves to  defined  and  recorded  rules.  Such  self-limi- 
tation came,  doubtless,  only  when  it  could  no  longer 
be  resisted,  and  may  have  been  compelled  by  the  ad- 
vance of  Buddhism.  Yet  even  these  considerations 
would  not  greatly  diminish  the  supposable  antiquity 
of  the  Code,  at  least  in  its  main  elements.  That  in  its 
present  form  it  represents  a  gradual  growth  of  the 
Brahmanical  ideas,  and  contains  additions  belonging 
to  very  different  periods,  is  more  than  probable,  es- 
pecially from  the  confused  and  contradictory  elements 
in  its  legislation.  At  all  events,  it  alludes  to  earlier 
codes,  whose  elements  are  doubtless  incorporated  into 
this,  the  fullest  and  most  perfect  in  form  of  all  that  are 
yet  known  to  us.1  Of  these  Indian  codes,  early  and 
late,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  end.  Stenzler  enu- 
merates forty-seven  law-books  by  different  authors, 
besides  twenty-two  special  revisions ;  the  codes  of 
Manu  and  Yajnavalkya  only  being  now  practically 
accessible  to  us.1  Most  of  these  books,  however,  are 
metrical  versions,  based  on  older  texts. 

Both  these  codes  define  the  extent  of  their  territorial 
validity  by  calling  themselves  the  "law  of  the  land 
(Aryavarta)  where  dwells  the  black  gazelle."  It  was 
thus  admitted  that  a  portion  of  the  peninsula  lay  out- 
side their  jurisdiction.  Whatever  antiquity  may  be 
ascribed  to  Manu,  or  however  late  the  origin  of  its 

1  Stenzler,  in  Weber's  Indische  Studien,  I.  236,  237. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  1 73 

present  form,  it  is  difficult  to  find  the  age  when  it  can 
have  had  practical  recognition  by  any  large  portion  of 
the  people  of  India.  It  is  in  fact  but  the  Law  Code 
of  the  Manavas,  one  of  the  old  Brahmanical  fellow- 
ships founded  on  common  guardianship  of  sacred  texts, 
and  is  valuable  mainly  as  embodying  what  was  un- 
doubtedly Orthodox  Brahmanism  in  its  most  vigorous 
age,  as  well  as  a  vast  number  of  the  recognized  usages 
and  institutions  of  ancient  Hindu  life.  And  there  is 
reason  for  believing,  in  accordance  with  what  is  stated 
by  Mr.  Maine  to  be  the  opinion  of  the  best  scholars, 
that  "it  does  not  as  a  whole  represent  a  set  of  rules 
ever  actually  administered  in  Hindustan,  but  is  an 
ideal  picture  of  what,  in  the  view  of  the  Brahmans, 
ought  to  be  the  Law."1 

As  further  evidence  of  a  later  origin  than  the  Brah- 
manas,  we  may  observe  that  the  Manava-Dharma- 
sastra  belongs  to  the  class  of  writings  defined  by  the 
orthodox  Hindus  as  Smriti,  or  tradition,  in  distinction 
from  Sruti,  or  revelation.  It  is  difficult  to  explain  this 
fact,  except  upon  the  supposition  that  a  more  recent  date 
was  ascribed  to  it  than  to  the  Brahmanas,  which,  as  we 
know,  by  reason  of  their  antiquity  were  held  to  be 
verbally  inspired.  For  it  represents  Manu  as  receiv- 
ing the  eternal  rules  of  justice  from  Brahma  himself, 
and  as  delivering  them  to  the  ten  great  rishis,  who 
reverently  address  him  as  master  of  all  divine 
truth.2 

Notwithstanding  this  inferior  position,  the  Brahman- 


1  Ancient  Law,  p.  16.  See  Sykes,  Polit.  Condition  of  Anc.  India,  Journal R.  As. 
Soc,  1S51,  VI.;  Annals  of  Rural  Bengal,  p.  104.  The  Code  of  Manu  is  nominally 
the  law  of  the  Burmese  empire.  But  we  are  told  that  every  monarch  alters  it  to  suit 
himself,  and  that  it  is  null  for  all  practical  purposes,  being  never  produced  or  pleaded 
from  in  courts.     Malcom,  Travels  in  BurmaA,  Notes,  IV. 

2  Introduction  to  Manu- 


174  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

ical  commentators  have  not  failed  to  recognize  its 
immense  value  as  authority  in  whatever  relates  to  their 
traditional  faith.  And  they  labor  earnestly  to  prove, 
not  quite  true  to  their  bibliolatry  here,  that  Manu's 
knowledge  of  the  Vedas  gave  him  equal  claims 
with  their  authors ;  yet  they  bring  the  testimony 
of  Vedic  text  itself,  that  "  whatever  Manu  said  is 
medicine."1 

Of  all  Institutes  of  Government,  this,  to  the  Brah- 
manical  tribes,  was  the  consummate  and  sacred 
flower.  Manu  signifies  Thought.  The  word 
is  kindred  with  the  Latin  mens,  as  also  with  man,  and 
indicates  the  honor  paid  by  the  Aryan  race  to  the  in- 
tellectual nature.2  The  name  thus  expressive  of 
divine  intelligence  revealed  in  the  human,  was  ap- 
plied by  the  Hindus  to  the  mythical  first  man  and 
first  king,  as  to  many  other  imaginary  rishis  in  prime- 
val legend.3  The  Institutes  called  by  his  name  are 
in  twelve  books  of  metrical  sentences,  covering  all 
branches  of  speculation  and  ethics,  of  public  and  pri- 
vate life.  The  first  reveals  a  Cosmogony  ;  the  second 
and  third  regulate  Education  and  Marriage  as  duties  of 
the  first  and  second  stages  of  Hindu  culture  ;  the  fourth 
treats  of  Economics  and  Morals  ;  the  fifth,  of  Diet  and 
Purification,  also  of  Women  ;  the  sixth,  of  Devotion,  or 
the  duties  of  the  third  and  fourth  stages  ;  the  seventh, 
of  Government  and  the  Military  Class ;  the  eighth,  of 
Private  and  Criminal  Law ;  the  ninth,  of  the  Com- 
mercial and  Servile  Classes ;  the  tenth,  of  Mixed 
Classes  and   Regulations  for  Times  of  Distress ;  the 

1  See  quotations  in  Miiller,  p.  89,  103. 

8  Minos  of  Greeks,  Menes  of  Egyptian,  Mannus  of  Germans,  Menw  of  Welsh.     See 
Pictet,  II.  621-627. 

3  See  Ztschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  IV.  430;  Miiller,  p.  532. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  I 75 

eleventh,  of  Penance  and  Expiation ;  the  twelfth,  of 
Transmigration  and  Final  Beatitude.1 

As  the  basis  of  Brahmanical  speculation  is  that  self 
is  nothing,  and  that  of  their  ethics  that  self-  Basis  in  self- 
ishness is  hell,  so  the  substance  of  their  juris-  abnesation- 
prudence  is  a  discipline  of  entire  self-renunciation. 
The  theoretic  aim  of  the  Manavasastra  is  the  utter 
suppression  of  selfish  desire.  It  is  absolute  despotism  ; 
but  a  despotism  by  the  conscience  rather  than  over  it; 
enslavement  not  of  subjects  by  rulers,  but  of  souls  by 
their  religious  idea.  Manu  begins,  and  Yajnavalkya 
ends,  with  reverent  ascription  of  the  Law  to  the  Self- 
existent.  Highest  and  lowest  castes  alike  confess  its 
terrible  sanctions,  present  and  future.  Its  minuteness  of 
legislation  is  unequalled.  If  we  should  judge  Oriental 
prescription  by  the  principles  we  must  apply  among 
ourselves,  we  should  say  that  its  regulations,  purifica- 
tions, penances  —  an  endless  reach  of  absurdity  —  had 
not  left  the  slightest  loop-hole  for  the  self-assertion  of 
private  reason  or  will.  They  are  doubtless  framed  with 
special  regard  to  the  prerogative  of  the  priesthood,  as 
divinely  appointed,  and  as  conscious  of  being  the  in- 
telligent and  controlling  class  ;  but  the  legislation  was 
law_/br  the  priesthood,  as  well  as  by  it,  and  demanded 
of  this  class  as  complete  self-abnegation  as  it  exacted 
from  the  Pariah.  The  Brahman  was  fully  invested 
with  the  duty  of  concealing  its  inner  meaning  from  all 
but  such  as  are  worthy  to  receive  it  from  his  sacred 
lips ;  and  an  appalling  secrecy  repelled  curiosity  and 

1  The  Law  Code  of  Yajnavalkya,  probably  next  in  the  order  of  time  to  Manu,  and 
referred  by  Stenzler  to  the  period  between  the  second  and  fifth  centuries  of  our  era,  covers 
substantially  the  same  ground  with  its  predecessor,  but  with  much  less  of  detail,  and  in  a 
style  and  diction  in  many  respects  peculiar  to  itself.  Its  speculative  contents  are  different 
from  those  of  Manu,  comprising  a  curious  treatise  on  the  physical  birth  and  structure  of 
man,  and  a  philosophy  that  strangely  combines  astrological  fancies  with  mystical,  Buddhis- 
tic, and  positive  tendencies.  It  consists  of  three  books  only,  which  have  been  translated 
by  Stenzler  (Berlin,  1849),  from  whose  German  version  our  extracts  are  taken. 


176  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

repressed  ambition  in  the  lay  classes.  This  is  their 
sacrifice.  He  has  also  his :  to  surrender  himself, 
body,  mind,  and  soul,  to  its  ascetic  observances;  and 
faithfully  to  fulfil  its  minutest  precepts,  on  penalty  of 
dreadful  transmigrations  for  ages.  Thus  a  master 
instinct  of  sacrifice  sweeps  the  whole  compass  of  life 
and  thought.  It  is  because  this  instinct,  however 
blind,  has  yet  essentially  noble  elements,  that  we  find 
even  a  spiritual  and  social  thraldom  like  caste,  though 
bristling  with  insensate  ceremonies  and  penalties,  alive 
with  the  endeavor  to  subdue  selfish  desires.  We  see 
this  alike  in  the  implacable  severity  with  which  sensual 
and  brutal  appetites  are  punished,  and  in  the  benevo- 
lence which  runs  in  fine  veins  and  broad  arteries 
through  the  gloomy  organism,  forbidding  wrath  and 
revenge,  binding  the  heart  to  the.  least  of  sentient 
creatures,1  and  in  its  way  anticipating  the  tenderness 
of  the  modern  poet :  — 

"  He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small ; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us. 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 2 

We  see  the  same  endeavor  in  the  stern  disciplines 
laid  upon  servants,  priests,  and  kings,  a  deeper 
democracy  of  renunciation  beneath  the  tyrannies  of 
caste ;  and  in  the  final  aim  of  the  whole  to  make 
saints  whose  motive  shall  lie  in  virtue,  not  in  its  re- 
wards ;  whose  ultimate  freedom  shall  be  to  lose  them- 

1  Matat,  IV.  238,  246 ;  VI.  40,  68. 

2  A  striking  instance  of  this  mixture  of  superstition  with  tenderness  to  the  brute  world, 
as  a  discipline  of  self-denial,  is  in  the  penance  prescribed  in  Manu  for  having  chanced  to 
kill  a  cow ;  a  creature  inviolably  sacred  for  the  Hindu,  from  his  sense  of  her  benefits  to  his 
fathers  in  the  early  nomad  days.  The  offender  "must  wait  for  months  all  day  on  the  herd, 
and  quaff  the  dust  raised  by  their  hoofs ;  must  stand  when  they  stand,  move  when  they 
move,  and  lie  down  by  them  when  they  lie  down.  Should  a  cow  fall  into  any  trouble  or 
fear,  he  must  relieve  her  ;  and,  in  whatever  heat,  rain,  or  cold,  must  not  seek  his  own 
shelter,  without  having  cared  for  the  cows."    Mauu,  XI.  100-116. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  177 

selves  in  Deity,  whose  method  to  "  shun  all  worldly 
honor  as  poison,  and  seek  disrespect  as  nectar,"1 
"  reposing  in  perfect  content  on  God  alone."  2  And  we 
see  it  in  the  creed  which  inspires  all  this  asceticism, 
and  proves  it  to  have  been  a  living  faith,  not  an  en- 
forced bondage:  —  "The  resignation  of  all  pleasures 
is  better  than  the  enjoyment  of  them."3 

The  product  of  Brahmanical  self-renunciation  was 
the  Yogi,  a  creature  of  penances,  purifications, 

i  r  i  -i  r   The  Yogi. 

and  ascetic  teats ;  the  conventional  type  of 
heathen  degradation  ;  whom  the  law  book  itself  paints 
as  crouching  at  the  foot  of  a  gloomy  banyan,  his 
hairs  growing  over  him,  and  his  nails  growing  in, 
gazing  listlessly  on  the  tip  of  his  nose,  or  moping 
along  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  ground,  lest  he  should 
unawares  destroy  some  ant  or  worm  ;  "  waiting  release 
from  his  body  as  a  servant  his  wages,"  yet  wishing 
neither  life  nor  death,  and  receiving  his  food  from 
others  without  asking  it,  as  the  due  of  his  austerities 
for  the  public  good.4  Unpromising  enough ;  yet  the 
desert  monks  of  Christendom  in  the  fourth  century 
were,  as  a  class,  less  gentle  and  thoughtful,  and  cer- 
tainly far  less  cleanly,  than  these  Eastern  devotees; 
while  they  drew  from  Christian  dogma  the  same 
unnatural  theory  of  self-abnegation  which  the  others 
drew  from  Hindu  caste.  And,  repulsive  as  he  may 
be,  the  Yogi  is  a  specimen,  such  as  these  crude  social 
conditions  could  furnish,  of  devotion  to  a  purely 
contemplative  ideal.  Under  all  the  circumstances 
even  squalid  asceticism  appears  as  a  positive  moral 
protest.  For  sensuality  must  have  all  the  more 
fiercely  beset  the  temperament  of  the  Hindu,  under 

1  Manu,  II.  162.  2  Ibid.,  VI.  43,  34. 

3  Ibid.,  II.  95.  *  Ibid.,  VI.  42,  45,  58,  68 ;   Yaj?iavalkya,  III.  45,  62. 


178  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

hot  suns,  amidst  a  voluptuous  physical  nature,  the 
more  he  was  devoted  to  seclusion  and  meditation ; 
and  these  relentless  disciplines  were  in  fact  a  vigor- 
ous reaction  against  titanic  attractions  in  the  senses. 
Their  very  name,  ta-pas,  signifying  heat,  hints  of  a 
torrid  climate,  in  which  the  moral  sense  was  finding 
itself  severely  tried.  This  virtue  is  of  the  passive 
Hindu  quality,  lacking  self-consciousness  and  free- 
dom, a  divine  instinct  struggling  against  hard  con- 
ditions ;  but  how  complete  its  command  !  Man  shall 
know  nothing,  and  be  nothing,  apart  from  the  God  of 
his  ideal  thought ;  and  in  finding  Him  all  things  else 
shall  be  found.  Such  is  its  law  and  its 'promise.  To 
escape  the  finite  dream,  and  the  petty  limit  of  self, 
and  to  enter  into  the  real  and  eternal,  as  a  blessed  life 
worthy  of  all  price,  is  the  mystic  desire  into  which  all 
great  religions  have  flowered,  each  in  its  own  hour 
and  way. 

The  Brahmanical  poets  certainly  knew  how  to 
picture  their  wilderness-life  in  very  attractive  colors, 
even  for  the  civilized  mind.1  The  hermitages  are 
described  in  the  Ramayana,  as  well  as  by  Kalidasa, 
as  surrounded  by  spacious  lawns,  well  planned  and 
scrupulously  neat;  frequented  by  antelopes,  deer,  and 
birds,  creatures  "  taught  to  trust  in  man  ;  "  shaded  by 
fruit-bearing  trees ;  laved  by  canals,  strewed  with 
wild-flowers,  and  set  with  clear  pools,  where  white 
lilies,  symbols  of  holy  living,  spread  their  floating 
petals,  never  wet  by  their  contact  with  the  element 
beneath,  to  the  clear  sky.1  And  here  the  peaceable 
saints,  husbands  and  wives,  purified  bodily  by  con- 
tinual ablutions,  and  spiritually  by  happy  meditation 
on  sacred  themes,  lived  amidst  supernatural  delights 

1  Raghttvansa,  B.  I.;  Sakuutalay  Act  I. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  1 79 

in  the  society  of  celestial  guests,  and  received  the 
visits  of  their  admirers  with  hospitality  in  their  leafy 
huts  ;  performing  stupendous  feats  of  asceticism  with- 
out physical  injury  ;  multiplying  their  simple  roots  and 
herbs  into  splendid  bouquets,  large  enough  for  armies, 
with  resources  beside  which  those  of  Hebrew  and 
Christian  miracle  must,  to  this  Oriental  imagination, 
be  hopelessly  tame.  Through  the  mythological  dress, 
we  detect  an  ideal  which  could  not  have  failed  in 
some  degree  to  reconcile  ascetic  life  with  natural  occu- 
pation and  social  good. 

And  we,  in  fact,  find  that  the  active  virtues  are 
not  forgotten.  "All  honor  to  the  house-  The  active 
holder,"  says  the  law,  "  and  let  him  faithfully  virtues- 
fulfil  his  duties."  "  He  who  gives  to  strangers,  with  a  , 
view  to  fame,  while  he  suffers  his  family  to  live  in 
distress,  having  power  to  support  them,  touches  his  | 
lips  with  honey,  but  swallows  poison.  Such  virtue  is 
counterfeit."  *  And  the  purely  contemplative  life  was 
not  allowable  till  three  stages  of  practical  activity  had 
been  passed  through  :  the  student  life  ;  domestic  mar- 
ried life,  or  social  service  of  some  sort ;  and  anchoret 
life,  a  kind  of  missionary  function,  to  feed  the  forest 
creatures,  and  preach  to  disciples,  —  doubtless,  like 
St.  Francis,  to  the  fishes  and  the  fowls  also.  "  Low 
shall  he  fall  who  applies  his  mind  to  final  beatitude, 
before  having  paid  the  three  debts,  to  the  gods,  the 
fathers,  and  the  sages;  read  the  Vedas  according  to 
law ;  begotten  a  son ;  and  sacrificed,  to  the  best  of 
his  power."2  Then  only  "shall  the  twice-born  man, 
perceiving  his  muscles  relaxing  and  his  hair  turning 
gray,  leave  his  wife  to  his  sons,  or  else,  accompanied 

1  Manu,  XI.  9.  2  Ibid.,  VI.  35. 


ISO  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

by  her,  seek  refuge  in  a  forest,  with  firm  faith  and 
subdued  organs  of  sense."  There  he  is  to  live,  patient 
of  extremities,  a  perpetual  giver,  benevolent  towards 
all  beings,  content  with  roots  and  fruit,  studying  what 
the  Vedas  teach  of  the  being  and  attributes  of  God ; 
proving  his  mastery  over  outward  things ;  in  the  hot 
season  by  adding  four  fires  to  the  sun's  heat ;  un- 
covered in  the  cold ;  putting  on  wet  garments  in  rain  ; 
and,  if  incurably  diseased,  living  on  air  and  water  till 
his  frame  decays  and  his  soul  is  united  with  the  Su- 
preme.1 Thus  he  advances  to  the  final  disciplines  of 
a  Sannyasi,  whose  sole  employment  is  "to  meditate 
on  the  transmigrations  caused  by  sin  and  the  im- 
perishable rewards  of  virtue,  on  the  subtle  essence 
of  the  Supreme  Spirit  and  its  complete  existence  in 
all  beings."  So  "  his  offences  are  burned  away ;  " 
"  all  that  is  repugnant  to  the  divine  nature  is  extin- 
guished ; "  "  higher  worlds  are  illuminated  with  his 
glory,"  and  he  is  "absorbed  in  the  divine  essence."2 
Here  the  balance  of  the  active  and  passive  elements 
is  indeed  lost,  since  the  ideal  of  life  is  contemplation 
alone ;  but  both  elements  are  at  all  events  recognized, 
and  the  system  in  this  respect  compares  very  credita- 
bly with  Christian  asceticism,  by  insisting,  as  that  has 
seldom  or  never  done,  on  the  fulfilment  of  practical 
duties  as  passport  to  contemplative  repose. 

Far  back  in  the  ages,  without  doubt  long  before 
Spirituality.  tne  Christian  era,  Hindu  formalism  was  met 
by  these  trenchant  rebukes  :  — 

"  By  falsehood  sacrifices  become  vain  ;  by  pride,  devotions.  By 
proclaiming  a  gift,  its  fruit  perishes."  3 

"  For  whatever  purpose  a  man  shall  bestow  any  gift,  according  to 
that  purpose  shall  be  his  reward."  4 

1  Mann,  VI.  1-31.  !  Ibid.,  VI.  62,  72,  8i. 

3  Ibid.,  IV.  237.  *  Ibid,  234- 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  l8l 

"One  who  voluntarily  confesses  his  sin  shall,  so  far,  cast  it  off: 
when  his  heart  shall  loathe  it,  the  taint  then  only  shall  pass  away."  1 

"  Let  no  man,  having  committed  sins,  perform  penance,  under  pre- 
text of  devotion,  disguising  his  crime  under  fictitious  religion : 
such  impostors,  though  Brahmans,  are  despised."2 

"  A  man  who  performs  rites  only,  not  discharging  his  moral 
duties,  falls  low :  let  him  discharge  these  duties,  even  though  he  be 
not  constant  in  those  rites." 3 

"  He  who  governs  his  passions,  though  he  know  only  the  G&yatri, 
or  holiest  text,  is  more  to  be  honored  than  one  who  governs  them 
not,  though  he  may  know  the  three  Vedas." 4 

Though  with  Eastern  extravagance  it  is  said  else- 
where that  "sixteen  suppressions  of  the  breath,  with 
the  constant  repetition  of  the  holy  syllables  for  a 
month,  will  absolve  even  the  slayer  of  a  Brahman  for 
his  hidden  faults,"5  passages  like  the  foregoing  cer- 
tainly imply  also  that  only  a  repentant  spirit  could  give 
such  efficacy  to  the  form.  So  this  frank  confession  of 
bibliolatry  —  "  as  a  clod  sinks  into  a  great  lake,  so  is 
every  sinful  act  submerged  in  the  triple  Veda"  —  should 
be  taken  in  connection  with  such  precepts  as  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 

"  The  wise  are  purified  by  forgiveness  of  injuries  ;  the  negligent 
of  duty,  by  liberality  ;  they  who  have  secret  faults,  by  devout  medi- 
tation." 6 

"  Of  all  pure  things,  purity  in  acquiring  wealth  is  pronounced 
most  excellent ;  since  he  who  gains  this  with  clean  hands  is  truly 
pure,  not  he  who  is  purified  with  earth  and  water."7 

"  Penance  brings  purification  for  the  Veda  student ;  patience  for 
the  wise  ;  water  for  the  body  ;  silent  prayer  for  the  secret  sin  ;  truth 
for  the  mind :  for  the  soul  the  highest  is  the  knowledge  of  God." s 

"  Let  the  wise  consider  as  having  the  quality  of  darkness  every  act 
which  one  is  ashamed  of  his  having  done,  or  doing,  or  being  about  to 
do  ;  to  that  of  passion,  every  act  by  which  he  seeks  celebrity  in  the 
world ;  to  that  of  goodness,  every  act,  by  which  he  hopes  to  acquire 

1  Afanu,  XI.  229-232.  2  Ibid.,  IV.  198.  s  Ibid.,  IV.  204. 

*  Ibid.,  II.  118.  b  Ibid.,  XI.  249.  6  Ibid.,  V.  107. 

7  Ibid.,  V.  106.  »  Yajn.,  III.  33,  34. 


l82  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

divine  knowledge,  which  he  is  never  ashamed  of  doing,  or  which 
brings  placid  joy  to  his  conscience.  The  prime  object  of  the  foul 
quality  is  pleasure  ;  of  the  passionate,  worldly  prosperity ;  of  the 
good,  virtue.1' l 

"To  be  a  hermit  is  not  to  bring  forth  virtue,"  adds 
Yajnavalkya  :  "  this  comes  only  when  it  is  practised. 
Therefore,  what  one  would  not  have  done  to  him,  let 
him  not  do  to  others."2 

"God  is  Spirit,"  says   the  Christian  Gospel,  "and 

Thes  Ht    tney  w^°  worship  Him  must  worship  Him  in 

spirit  and  in  truth."     Hear  the  Hindu  Law  :  — 

"  O  friend  to  virtue,  that  Supreme  Spirit,  which  thou  believest 
one  with  thyself,  resides  in  thy  bosom  perpetually,  and  is  an  all- 
knowing  inspector  of  thy  virtue  or  thy  crime." 

"  If  thou  art  not  at  variance  with  that  great  divinity  within  thee,  go 
not  on  pilgrimage  to  Gunga,  nor  to  the  plain  of  Curu."  3 

"  The  soul  is  its  own  witness,  its  own  refuge.  Offend  not  thy 
conscious  soul,  the  supreme  internal  witness  of  men." 

"  The  wicked  have  said  in  their  hearts,  '  None  sees  us.'  Yes, 
the  gods  see  them,  and  the  spirit  within  their  own  breasts." 4 

"The  wages  of  sin,"  says  the  Christian  Bible,  "is 
„    .,    .     death."      Quite  as  distinctly  says   the  Hindu 

Retribution.  ^^-  •'  •> 

Law :  — 

"  The  fruit  of  sin  is  not  immediate,  but  comes  like  the  harvest, 
in  due  season.  Little  by  little,  it  eradicates  the  man.  Its  fruit,  if 
not  in  himself,  is  in  his  sons  or  in  his  sons'  sons."6 

"  Even  here  below,  the  unjust  is  not  happy,  nor  he  whose  wealth 
comes  from  false  witness,  nor  he  who  delights  in  mischief."6 

"  One  grows  rich  for  a  while  through  unrighteousness,  and  van- 
quishes his  foes  ;  but  he  perishes  at  length  from  his  root  up."7 

"  Justice,  being  destroyed,  will  destroy  ;  preserved,  will  preserve. 
It  must  therefore  never  be  violated." 8 

"In  whatever  extremity,  never  turn  to  sin."9 

1  Mann,  XII.  35-38.  *  Yctjn.,  III.  65.  8  Manu,  VIII   qi,  92. 

*  Ibid.,  VIII.  84,  85.  B  Ibid.,  IV.  172,  173.  e  Ibid  ,  IV.  170. 

1  Ibid.,  IV.  174.  8  Ibid.,  VIII.  15.  9  Ibid.,  IV.  171. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  1 83 

"  Let  one  walk  in  the  path  of  good  men,  the  path  in  which  his 
fathers  walked." ' 

"  Vice  is  more  dreadful  by  reason  of  its  penalties  than  death." 2 

"Whosoever,"  says  the  New  Testament,  "shall 
break  one  of  these  commandments,  is  guilty  of  all." 
The  Dharmasastra  of  Manu  affirms  the  same  natural 
law  of  integrity.  "  If  one  sins  with  one  member,  the 
sin  destroys  his  virtue,  as  a  single  hole  will  let  out  all 
the  water  in  a  flask." 3 

"  Let  one  collect  virtue  by  degrees,  as  the  ant  builds  its  nest, 
that  he   may   acquire  a  companion   to   the  next  world.  The  Future 
For,  in  his  passage   thither,  his  virtue  only  will  adhere  Life, 
to  him. 

"  Single  is  each  man  born  ;  alone  he  dies,  alone  receives  the  reward 
of  his  doings.  When  he  leaves  his  body  on  the  ground,  his  kindred 
retire  with  averted  faces,  but  his  virtue  accompanies  his  soul. 

"  Let  him  gather  this,  therefore,  to  secure  an  inseparable  com- 
panion through  the  gloom,  how  hard  to  be  traversed  ! "  4 

"The  only  firm  friend  who  follows  man  after  death  is  justice."5 

In  order  to  discover  what  is  the  substance  of  this 
Brahmanic  ideal,  let  us  note  first  some  of  the  Humanities, 
humanities  of  the  Code. 

"  The  care  and  pain  of  parents  in  behalf  of  their  children  can- 
not be  repaid  in  a  hundred  years." 6 

"  Reverence  for  age  is  to  the  young,  life,  knowledge,  and  fame." 7 

"  The  old,  the  blind,  the  maimed,  the  sick,  the  poor,  the  heavy 
laden,  are  to  be  treated  with  marked  respect,  even  by  the  king." 8 

"  Knowledge,  virtue,  age,  even  in  a  Sudra,  should  have  re- 
spect." 9 

The  diseased  and  deformed  were  avoided  in  sacri- 
ficial  acts,10  which   concerned  only  what  was  physi- 

1  Manu,  IV.  178.  2  ibid.,  VII.  53.  3  Ibid.,  II.  99. 

4  Ibid.,  IV.  239-242.  6  ibid.,  VIII.  17.  8  Ibid.,  II.  227. 

7  Ibid.,  II.  121.  8  ibid.,  II.  138;  VIII.  395;  Yajn.,  I.  117- 

9  Yajn.,  I.  116.  10  Manu,  III.  161. 


184  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

cally  as  well  as  spiritually  unblemished.  Yet  they 
were  "in  no  wise  to  be  insulted."1  As  Homer 
pictures  the  gods  going  about  disguised  as  beggars 
and  outcasts,  to  try  men's  hearts,  so,  according 
to  Manu,  children,  poor  dependants,  and  the  sick 
are  to  be  regarded  as  "rulers  of  the  ether."2  The 
blind,  crippled,  old,  and  helpless  are  not  to  be  taxed;3 
the  deaf  and  dumb,  the  idiotic  and  insane,  the  maimed, 
and  those  who  have  lost  the  use  of  a  limb,  are  indeed 
excluded  from  inheriting,  but  must  be  supported  by 
the  heir,  without  stint,  to  the  best  of  his  power.4  On 
the  father's  death,  the  oldest  son  must  support  the 
family,  and  the  brothers  must  endow  their  sisters.5 
The  authority  of  the  householder  over  his  family  is 
almost  absolute ;  yet  he  must  "  regard  his  wife  and 
son  as  his  own  body,  his  dependants  as  his  shadow, 
his  daughter  with  the  utmost  tenderness."6  His  pre- 
scribed prayer  is,  "  that  generous  givers  may  abound 
in  his  house,  that  faith  and  study  may  never  depart 
from  it,  and  that  he  may  have  much  to  bestow  on  the 
needy." 7 

"  A  guest  must  not  be  sent  away  at  evening  :  he  is  sent  by  the 
retiring  sun ;  and,  whether  he  have  come  in  season  or  out  of  sea- 
son, he  must  not  sojourn  in  the  house  without  entertainment."  8 

The  sense  of  solidarity  in  social  ethics  is  well  worth 
noticing,  as  shown  in  passages  like  the  following :  — 

"  The  soldier  who  flees  and  is  slain  shall  take  on  himself  all  the 
sins  of  his  commander  ;  and  the  commander  receive  all  the  fruit  of 
good  conduct  stored  up  by  the  other  for  the  future  life." 

"  A  sixth  of  the  reward  for  virtuous  actions,  due  the  whole  peo- 
ple, belongs  to  the  king  who  protects  them :  if  he  protects  them 
not,  a  sixth  of  their  iniquity  falls  on  him."  9 

'  Manu,  IV.  141.  2  Ibid.,  IV.  184.  »  Ibid.,  VIII.  394- 

*  Ibid.,  IX.  202.  E  Ibid.,  IX.  104-!  18.  6  Ibid.,  IV.  1S5. 

»  Ibid.,  III.  259.  8  Ibid.,  III.  105.  »  Ibid.,  VII.  94;  VIII.  304. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  185 

The  Brahman's  decalogue  not  only  commands  con- 
tent, veracity,  purification,  coercion  of  the 
senses,  resistance  to  appetites,  knowledge  of 
scripture  and  of  the  Supreme  Spirit,  but  abstinence 
from  illicit  gain,  avoidance  of  wrath,  and  the  return 
of  good  for  evil.1  Forced  contracts  are  declared 
void.2  Transfer  of  property  must  be  made  in  writ- 
ing.3 Royal  gifts  are  to  be  recorded  on  permanent 
tablets.4  There  are  laws  against  slander,  peculation, 
intemperance,  and  dealing  in  ardent  spirits;  laws  pun- 
ishing iniquitous  judgments,  false  witness,  and  unjust 
imprisonment ;  laws  providing  for  the  annulment  and 
revision  of  unrighteous  decrees  ;  enforcing  the  sacred- 
ness  of  pledges  and  the  fulfilment  of  trusts ;  justly 
dividing  the  responsibilities  of  partners ;  dealing  se- 
verely with  conspiracies  to  raise  prices  to  the  injury 
of  laborers ;  laws  which  either  forbid  gambling  alto- 
gether, or  discourage  it  by  regulative  drawbacks  ;  laws 
declaring  persons  reduced  to  slavery  by  violence  free, 
as  well  as  the  slave  who  has  saved  his  master's  life,  or 
who  purchases  his  own  freedom.5  Penalty  becomes 
merciless  in  dealing  with  crimes  which  involve  the 
greatest  mischief,  such  as  arson,  counterfeiting  coin, 
and  selling  poisonous  meat.6 

The  king  shall  "  never  transgress  justice."  "  It  is 
the  essence  of  majesty,  protector  of  all  created  things, 
and  eradicates  his  whole  race,"  if  he  swerves  from 
duty.7  "  He  shall  forgive  those  who  abuse  him  in  their 
pain  :  if  through  pride  he  will  not  excuse  them,  he 
shall  go  to  his  torment."8 

1  Mann,  VI.  91.  2  Ibid.,  VIII.  168;   Yajn.,  II.  89. 

8  Yajn.,  II.  84.  *  Ibid.,  I.  317,  318. 

6  Ibid.,  III.  285;  II.  270;  Manu,  IX.  221;  Yajn.,  II.  4,  82,243;  31,  305;  58,  164, 
249,  259;  Manu,  VIII.  211,  230-233;   Yajn.,  II.  199,  182. 

6  Yajn-,  II.  282,  297.  1  Manu,  VII.  13,  14,  28.  8  Ibid.,  VIII.  313. 


l86  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

"  A  king,"  says  Yajnavalkya,  "  should  be  very  patient,  experi- 
enced, generous,  mindful  of  services  rendered,  respectful  to  the  old, 
modest,  firm,  truthful,  acquainted  with  the  laws,  not  censorious,  nor 
of  loose  habits,  nor  low  inclination,  able  to  hide  his  weak  points, 
wise  in  reasoning  and  in  criminal  law,  in  the  art  of  procuring  a 
livelihood,  and  in  the  three  Vedas." 
I    "  Higher  than  all  gifts  is  the  protection  of  his  subjects." 

"  The  fire  that  ascends  from  the  people's  sufferings  is  not  extin- 
guished till  it  has  consumed  their  king,  his  fortune,  family,  life."  ' 

"  What  he  has  not,  let  a  king  seek  to  attain  honestly  ;  what  he 
has,  to  guard  with  care  ;  what  he  guards,  to  increase ;  and  what  is 
increase  let  him  give  to  those  who  deserve  it."  l 

He  shall  be  "a  father  of  his  people."2  He  should 
make  war  only  for  the  protection  of  his  dominions ; 
must  respect  the  religion,  laws,  and  even  the  fears,  of 
the  conquered.3  Punishment  by  military  force  must 
be  his  last  resort.4 

The  warrior,  "  remembering  what  is  due  to  honor," 
shall  not  shoot  with  poisoned  arrows,  nor  strike  the 
weary,  the  suppliant,  the  non-combatant,  the  sleeping, 
the  severely  wounded,  the  fugitive,  the  disarmed,  nor 
one  already  engaged  with  an  opponent,  nor  one  who 
yields  himself  captive.5  Civilization  has  added  noth- 
ing to  these  humanities  of  military  chivalry.  To  sum 
all,  "let  not  injustice  be  done  in  deed  or  in  thought, 
nor  a  word  be  uttered  that  shall  cause  a  fellow-creature 
pain  :  it  will  bar  one's  progress  to  final  bliss."6  "  He 
who  has  caused  no  fear  to  the  smallest  creature  shall 
have  no  cause  for  fear  when  he  dies." 7 

It  may  not  be  easy  to  comprehend  the  idea  of  justice 
Moral  which  mingled  with  such  precepts  as  these 
sanctions,  ^he  cruelties  of  caste  legislation.  Yet  do  not 
such   incompatibilities   proceed    side   by    side    in   the 

1   Yajn.,  I.  308-310,  334,  340,  316  /-?  Manu,  VII.  80  ;   Yajn.,  I.  333. 

3  Manu,  VII.  168,  170,  201,  203.  *  Ibid.,  VII.  108;   Yajn.,  I.  345. 

6  Manu,  VII   90-93;   Yajn.,  I.  325.  6  Manu,  II.  161  7  Manu,  VI.  40. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  1 87 

laws,  theologies,  and  bibles  of  all  races?  For  the 
State  as  such,  the  reconciliation  of  law  with  love, 
of  government  with  noble  instinct,  as  yet  lies  in  the 
future. — We  notice  that  self-interest  is  suggested  as 
motive  for  benevolence.  This  sanction  is  constantly 
appealed  to  in  the  New  Testament  also,  and  even  in 
the  Beatitudes  of  Jesus.  But  it  would  be  irrational 
to  make  this  a  ground  for  ascribing  such  delicacy 
of  affection  as  appears  in  both  Hindu  and  Hebrew 
ethics  to  any  other  primary  cause  than  noble  and  hu- 
mane feeling.  Laws  may  suggest  interested  motives, 
and  they  must  appeal  to  sanctions.  But  Law  itself 
springs  from  the  natural  instincts  of  love  and  care, 
as  well  as  from  social  dangers.  And  so  the  eternal 
piety  of  the  heart  had  its  large  share  in  the  oldest 
legislation. 

With  what  decision  a  natural  self-respect  breaks 
forth  through  the   slavery  of  abnegation,  the,,, 

0  J       .  °  belf-respect. 

despotism    of  custom  and  law,  in  such    pre- 
cepts of  an  older  stoicism  as  these :  — 

"  One  must  not  despise  himself  for  previous  failures  :  let  him 
pursue  fortune  till  death,  nor  ever  think  it  hard  to  be  attained."  ' 

"  Success  depends  on  destiny  and  on  conduct :  the  wise  expect 
it  from  the  union  of  these  ;  as  a  car  goes  not  on  a  single  wheel,  so 
without  one's  own  action  the  fated  is  not  brought  to  pass." 2 

"  All  that  depends  on  one's  self  gives  pleasure  :  all  that  depends 
on  another,  pain."  3 

"  The  habit  of  taking  gifts  causes  the  divine  light  to  fade."  4 

"  A  believer  may  receive  pure  knowledge  even  from  a  sudra;  and 
a  lesson  in  the  highest  virtue  even  from  a  chandala  ;  and  a  woman 
bright  as  a  gem  even  from  the  basest  family.  Even  from  poison 
may  nectar  be  taken  ;  from  a  child,  gentleness  of  speech  ;  even  from 
a  foe,  prudent  counsel ;  even  from  an  impure  substance,  gold."  6 


1  Manu,  IV.  137.  2    Yajn.,  I.  348-350. 

»  Manu..  IV.  160.  *  Ibid.,  IV.  186.  6  Ibid.,  II.  23S,  239. 


IOO  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

It  may  be  asked  how  much  of  all  this  preaching  was 
Natme  of  reduced  to  practice  ?  It  is  doubtless  true,  as 
oriental      We    have  said,   that   Oriental  Codes    express 

codes :  their  ,  ,  .  . 

right  inter-  rather  the  aspirations  and  convictions  of  the 
pretation.  classes  from  which  they  spring,  than  actual 
rules  of  civil  and  political  conduct.  They  are  vast 
repositories  of  national  life,  of  individual  ideals, 
philosophical  systems,  customs  and  traditions  more 
or  less  sacred,  laws  more  or  less  recognized  and 
carried  out.  They  have  also  an  imaginative  form, 
deal  in  the  superlative  and  boundless,  and  must  not  be 
too  literally  interpreted.  These  considerations  apply 
alike  to  their  good  and  evil ;  and  we  must  guard  alike 
against  over-censure  and  over-praise.  But  this  much 
may  be  said.  The  Greeks  who  travelled  in  India 
centuries  before  the  Christian  era  were  enthusiastic 
in  their  admiration  of  Hindu  morals.  They  told  of 
kings  spending  the  whole  day  in  the  administration 
of  justice,  of  the  honesty  of  traders,  and  the  general 
dislike  of  litigation ;  of  the  infrequency  of  theft, 
though  houses  were  left  open  without  bolts  or  bars ; 
and  of  the  custom  of  loaning  money  without  seals  or 
witnesses.  They  praised  the  truthfulness  of  the  men 
and  the  chastity  of  the  women.1  Whatever  deduc- 
tion must  be  made  from  these  testimonies  for  exagger- 
ation and  mistakes,  they  are  not  without  their  value. 
But  for  us  the  main  import  of  such  precepts  is  that 
the  human  soul  recognized  the  nobility  of  truth, 

The  sub-  »  J 

stance  of  the  justice,  and  love  through  its  own  resources, 
and  bore  witness  to  the  universality  of  its  own 
inspiration.  There  they  stand  written  in  their  old 
Sanskrit,  or  "  beautiful  speech  "  as  the  Hindu  called 
it,  pointing  back  to  how  much  older  times  than  such 

1  Arrian,  Strabo.     See  also  Duncker,  II.  283-287. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  1 89 

writing  we  cannot  tell.  And  to  affirm,  in  the  exclusive 
interest  of  the  Christian,  or  any  other  "dispensation," 
that  they  were  not  deeply  felt  and  bravely  lived  by 
men  and  women  even  then,  were  indeed 

"  To  sound  God's  sea  with  earthly  plummet, 
To  find  a  bottom  still  of  worthless  clay." 

The  barbarities  of  this  legislation  —  and  they  are 
many  and  dark  —  do  not  disprove  our  conclu-  The  darker 
sions.  In  all  times  and  civilizations,  verities  side- 
stand  side  by  side  with  falsities  ;  and  barbarous  laws 
and  customs  contradict  the  best  theoretic  claims  of 
states.  The  better  moments  of  a  people's  life  record 
their  natural  capacities  for  good ;  and  of  these  their 
unjust  or  cruel  traditions  of  law  must  not  be  taken  as 
the  measure.  Would  it  be  fair  in  some  future  historian 
to  assert  that  the  American  conscience  had  no  better 
ideal  of  freedom  down  to  the  year  1865  than  a  slavery 
basis  of  representation  and  a  Fugitive  Slave  Law?  It 
would  certainly  be  more  just  to  say  that  American 
history  had  been  throughout,  the  struggle  of  the  two 
opposing  ideas,  Liberty  and  Slavery,  each  existing 
potentially  in  the  consciousness  of  the  age  and  people, 
and  more  or  less  apprehended  by  individuals  ;  and  that 
the  laws,  so  far  from  showing  the  stage  at  which  this 
personal  light  or  darkness  had  arrived,  as  a  definite 
point,  gave  merely  the  general  resultants  of  the  strife 
with  long  established  and  instituted  wrong.  If  then 
the  barbarities  of  the  Hindu  Codes  were  even  crimes 
like  those  of  mature  civilization,  instead  of  being,  as 
they  to  a  great  extent  are,  results  of  childish  fears  and 
superstitions,  they  would  still  prove  nothing  against 
other  evidences  that  a  high  sense  of  ethical  truth  stood 
side  by  side  with  them  in  the  Hindu  mind. 


I9O  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

In  fairness  we  must  note  that  the  beginnings,  even 
„     .        of   customs    which   the    advance  of  practical 

How  inter-  *■ 

pretedand  intelligence  stamps  as  enormities,  are  to  be 
found  in  half-conscious  instincts,  by  no  means 
discreditable  to  human  nature.  And  the  legislation 
we  condemn  was  perhaps  the  effort  actually  to  modify 
and  control  their  mis-growth.  Whoever  the  earlier 
legislators  may  have  been,  they  were  obliged  to  make 
the  best  of  existing  institutions.  What  to  us  are  de- 
fects in  their  codes  may  have  been  timely  reforms  and 
remedial  restraints.  Solon's  laws  gave  political  func- 
tions according  to  wealth  ;  thus  continuing,  to  a  degree, 
the  old  exclusion  of  the  people  as  a  whole  from  office. 
But  he  was  thereby  enabled  to  lift  them  from  a  yet 
more  abject  position,  and  to  procure  them,  in  compen- 
sation for  such  defects,  their  archons  and  general 
assembly,  —  powerful  checks  on  the  aristocratic  party. 
Another  arbitrary  decree  of  this  great  Athenian  can- 
celled just  debts,  and  debased  the  currency.  Yet 
it  delivered  the  poor  from  burdens  which  they  could 
no  longer  bear,  freed  them  from  personal  seizure  for 
debt,  and  produced  an  abiding  respect  for  the  force  of 
contracts.1  "  I  made  the  land  and  the  people  free," 
he  said ;  and  Aristotle  reaffirms  this  claim  on  his 
behalf.  Portions  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  concerning 
the  Canaanite  races,  that  seem  to  the  last  degree  cruel 
and  barbarian,  were  really  a  limitation  to  the  treat- 
ment of  certain  most  dangerous  enemies  alone,  of 
usages  previously  applied  to  enemies  as  such.2  Traces 
of  similar  efforts  at  mitigation  are  observable  in  many 
severities  of  the  Hindu  Code. 

The  better  impulses  in  which  many  persistent  forms 
of  law,  now  seen  to  be  inhuman,  originated  in  rude 

1  Grote,  III.  105.  2  Deut.  xx.  10-18. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  I9I 

ages,  have  seldom  been  recognized  by  historical 
inquirers,  and  scarcely  enter  into  the  estimate  of 
heathenism  by  the  Christian  world  in  general. 

The  elder  races,  for  example,  were  fully  and  in- 
tensely convinced  of  the  nature  of  moral  evil  The  Qrdeal 
and  the  certainty  of  moral  retributions.  They 
were,  on  the  other  hand,  ignorant  of  the  invariableness 
of  natural  laws.  These  two  conditions  led  inevitably 
to  the  use  of  the  Ordeal,  as  a  means  of  testing  guilt  by 
an  appeal  to  divine  interposition.  It  was  simply  an 
effort  to  find  decisions  of  justice  in  the  ill-understood 
operations  of  physical  nature ;  to  prove  that  the  ele- 
ments were  under  moral  sovereignty.  The  Sanskrit 
words  for  ordeal  signify  "  faith "  and  "  divine  test." 
"The  fire  singed  not  a  hair  of  the  sage  Vatsa,  by 
reason  of  his  perfect  veracity."  x  Nature  is  pledged, 
in  other  words,  to  deal  justly,  when  appealed  to. 
Can  Christians  tell  us  why  a  miracle  should  not  be 
wrought  to  save  a  truthful  Vatsa,  as  well  as  to  punish 
a  lying  Ananias  ;  or  why  fire  and  water  should  not 
discriminate  between  the  saint  and  the  sinner  in  the 
old  Hindu  courts  as  well  as  in  the  cases  of  modern 
reprobates  recorded  in  the  "  manuals  "  as  drowned  or 
struck  by  lightning  for  violating  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath? But  there  is  in  fact  a  great  difference.  For 
while  it  may  have  indicated  not  a  little  faith  and  cour- 
age, in  races  ignorant  of  physical  laws,  to  believe  that 
Nature  was  subordinate  to  justice,  and  to  trust  its  cause 
to  her  defence,  it  seems  to  imply  something  very  unlike 
either  of  these  qualities  to  renounce  the  light  of  a 
scientific  age  in  the  name  of  religion,  and  persistently 
to  cling  to  the  superstitions  of  an  ignorant  one. 

Manu  knows  only  ordeals  by  fire  and  water,  or  by 

»  Manu,  VIII.  116. 


I92  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

touching  the  heads  of  one's  wife  and  children  with 
invocations  thereon.  Other  codes  add  tests  by  poison 
and  by  various  processes,  —  for  example,  by  being 
weighed  twice  in  scales,  drinking  consecrated  water, 
touching  hot  iron  with  the  tongue.  In  the  trial  by 
carrying  a  red-hot  bar  for  seven  paces,  however,  leaves 
were  to  be  wrapped  round  the  hand ;  in  that  by  re- 
maining a  certain  time  under  water,  the  legs  of  another 
could  be  clasped.  The  seasons  of  the  year  for  em- 
ploying the  different  forms  of  ordeal  were  determined 
with  a  certain  regard  to  the  interests  of  those  who 
were  to  undergo  them.  Women,  children,  the  old, 
the  sick,  and  the  weak  were  not  to  be  subjected  to 
ordeals  by  fire,  water,  or  poison,  but  by  the  scales 
only.1  Yajnavalkya  implies  that  they  were  not  to 
be  used  except  in  cases  of  great  moment.2 

The  ordeal  cannot  be  called  the  special  barbarism 
of  any  one  race  or  religion,  though  it  appears  never 
to  have  existed  in  China.  The  Arab,  the  Japanese, 
the  wild  African,  alike  defer  to  its  authority.3  The 
Hebrew  husband  had  his  "bitter  water  of  jealousy." 
And  the  historian  of  the  Christian  Church  tells  us 
that  she  "took  the  ordeal  under  her  especial  sanction," 
sprinkled  its  red-hot  iron  with  her  holy  water,  and 
enacted  its  cruelties  with  solemn  rituals  within  her 
temples.4  Down  to  the  twelfth  century,  it  "  afforded 
the  means  of  awing  the  laity,  by  rendering  the 
priest  a  special  instrument  of  Divine  justice,  into 
whose  hands  every  man  felt  that  he  was  liable  at  any 
moment  to  fall."5     And  its  final  abolition  was  due 

1  For  a  summary  of  these  laws,  see  Stenzler,  in  Zeitsch.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  IX.  661-682 ; 
Manu,  VIII.  115;  Asiat.  Res.,  I.  389. 

2  Yajn.,  II.  95.     See  Stenzler's  Introduction,  p.  vii. 

8  See  Pictet,  II.  457,  458.  *  Milman,  Lat-  Christianity,  III.  v. 

6  Lea's  Superstition  and  Force,  p.  271. 


,  THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  1 93 

quite  as  much  to  the  revival  of  the  old  Roman  law 
and  the  rise  of  the  free  communes  as  to  the  repent- 
ance of  the  Church. 

Personal  deformities  and  diseases  are  regarded  in 
Manu  as  the  consequences  of  sin  in  the  present 
or  in  a  previous  life.  And  the  law  classifies  of  physical 
them  according  to  the  sins  from  which  they 
proceed.  In  one  passage  it  declares  that  the  victims 
are  to  be  despised  ; 1  excluding  some  of  them  too  from 
the  Sraddha,  or  feast  in  honor  of  the  dead.3  And  this 
superstition  is  as  wide-spread  as  the  ordeal ;  it  has, 
like  that,  infected  the  Jew  and  the  Christian,  and  had 
a  similar  origin  in  the  effort  to  comprehend  the  mystery 
of  physical  evil  under  a  moral  law.  —  The  instinctive 
presumption  that  it  becomes  the  material  world  to 
show  allegiance  to  the  moral,  is  of  course,  while 
growing  up  among  ignorant  races,  the  source  of  a 
superstitious  expectation  of  miracles.  But  we  must  not 
forget  that  it  is  this  very  instinct  to  whose  develop- 
ment by  science  we  owe  the  abolition  of  every  ground 
for  believing  or  demanding  miracles  ;  its  ultimate  form 
being  the  conviction  that  natural  laws  are  themselves 
the  desired  expressions  of  universal  good. 

The  contempt  which  Hindu  law  prescribes  towards 
the  physically  deformed  and  diseased  is  limited 
within  strictly  defined  lines  of  conduct ;   and  towards  de- 
this  legislation    is    evidently  an    endeavor   to  f01™1^3"11 

0  J  disease. 

modify  and  restrain,  as  well  as  to  respect,  the 
crude  instinct  that  physical  evil  is  a  punishment  for 
sin.  The  unfortunate  were  not  to  be  despised  as 
such.  They  were  to  be  treated  kindly  and  even  with 
respect.3  They  were  exempted  from  public  burdens  ; 
and  although  avoided  in  the  act  of  sacrifice  as  being 

1  Manu,  XI.  48,  S3-  2  Ibid.,  III.  150.  *  Y&jn.,  II.  204. 

13 


194-  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

blemished,  and  in  the  choice  of  partners  for  life,  prob- 
ably for  physiological  reasons,  yet  they  were  not  to 
be  expelled  from  society ;  and,  after  prescribed  rites, 
could  freely  associate  with  other  people. 

There  are  also  sanguinary  punishments  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  "eye  for  eye  and  tooth  for  tooth."    And 

Eye  for  eye.     .  .  ..... 

these  are  made  most  repulsive  by  their  connec- 
tion with  the  enormous  inequalities  of  caste.  This 
principle,  cruel  as  it  seems,  forms  the  basis  of  all  first 
essays  at  abstract  and  ideal  justice  in  the  requital  of 
crime.  Some  of  the  severest  penalties  are  left  to  the 
criminal's  own  execution,  as  if  falling  back  on  a  sup- 
posed spontaneous  recognition  of  their  rightfulness  in 
his  own  mind.1  And  their  barbarity  cannot  be  ex- 
plained on  any  theory  that  leaves  out  of  view  the  fact 
that  their  makers  had  at  least  an  intense  abhorrence 
of  the  crimes  they  punished.  Adulterers  must  burn 
on  a  bed  of  red-hot  iron.  Thieves  were  to  lose  the 
limbs  with  which  they  effected  the  theft.2  "  Where- 
withal a  man  hath  sinned,  with  the  same  let  him  be 
punished,"  recommended  itself  to  these  unflinching 
judges  as  the  maxim  of  natural  right.  It  was  but 
following  out  the  stern  hint  of  nature  in  its  retribu- 
tions of  sensual  excesses. 

But  the  law  knew  how  to  provide  compensations  for 
Sympathies  aU  endurance  of  its  barbarities.  As  if  dissat- 
of  the  law.  jgfied  with  them,  and  looking  upwards  for  a 
way  out  of  these  bonds  of  judgment,  it  says  :  "  Men 
who  have  committed  offences,  and  received  from 
kings  the  punishment  due  them,  go  pure  to  heaven, 
and  become  as  clear  as  those  who  have  done  well."3 
A  similar  reaction  against  the  severity  of  statutes  was 

1  Maim,  XI.  ioo,  104.     Suicide  is  one  of  the  commonest  forms  of  penalty  in  the  East. 

2  Ibid.,  VIII.  372,  334-  s  Ibid.,  VIII.  31S. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  I 95 

naturally  to  be  expected  in  the  case  of  false  witness, 
in  view  of  the  tremendous  penalties  which  were  at- 
tached to  this  crime,  both  for  the  present  and  the 
future  life.  And  this  presumption  may  help  explain 
the  exceptional  fact,  that  falsehood  is  expressly  al- 
lowed, wherever  the  death  of  a  person  of  any  caste, 
who  has  sinned  inadvertently,  would  be  caused  by 
giving  true  evidence  in  the  courts.1  It  would  seem  as 
if  the  affections  sought  to  assert  their  precedence,  in 
such  extreme  cases  of  the  conflict  of  duties,  to  the 
demands  of  literal  fact.  In  the  same  way  we  may 
account  for  the  singular  scale  of  fines  and  forfeits  in 
commutation  of  penalties,  based,  by  a  crude  sense  of 
natural  justice,  on  the  principle  of  eye  for  eye  and 
life  for  life.  They  are  not  a  mere  money  measure 
of  crime,  but  the  modification  of  a  harsh  lex  ialionis 
under  the  influence  of  the  humane  sentiments. 

This  relenting  indicates  the  natural  character  of  the 
Hindus  better  than  the  barbarism  of  the  legislation  in 
detail.  It  is  not  to  be  believed  that  the  punishments 
by  branding  and  mutilation,  the  expiations  by  self- 
torture  and  suicide,  even  for  minor  crimes,  were  car- 
ried out  with  any  thing  like  the  precision  of  our  western 
conformity  to  written  law.2  There  is  so  much  contra- 
diction between  different  texts,  both  in  spirit  and  in 
letter,  so  much  manifest  exaggeration,  such  frequent 
confusion  of  law  with  ethics,  and  such  difficulty  of  dis- 
tinguishing between  dogmatic  statement  and  positive 
command,  that  this  natural  inference  from  the  general 

1  Manu,  VIII.  104;   Y&jn.,  II.  83. 

2  The  very  great  disregard  of  legal  prohibition  concerning  the  use  of  animal  food  and 
the  destruction  of  animal  life,  by  the  Brahmans,  is  described  in  Heber's  Journal,  vol.  ii. 
P-  379- 


I96  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

character  of  the  race  is  not  set  aside  by  the  text  of 
the  Law  Book  itself.1 

Even  the  history  of  infanticide  and  of  sati  bears 
infanticide  witness  to  this  natural  gentleness  of  Hindu 
and  suttee,  character.  No  traces  0/  these  customs  are 
found  in  the  Rig  Veda,  in  Manu,  or  in  Yajnavalkya. 
They  are  a  later  growth,  partly  of  tropical  enerva- 
tion, partly  of  social  misery.  But  nobler  elements2 
also  were  involved  in  the  widow's  desire  to  follow 
her  lost  husband ;  and  female  infanticide  was  due  to 
the  marriage  custom  of  giving  a  costly  dowry  with 
the  bride.3  Both  these  barbarities  were  abandoned 
at  the  earliest  opportunity  afforded  by  European  in- 
fluence.4 Their  rapid  extinction  in  British  India  was 
mainly  the  work  of  the  native  chiefs  themselves,  under 
the  persuasion  of  men  like  Ludlow,  Macpherson,  and 
Campbell.4  Even  before  British  interference,  many 
of  these  chiefs  had  endeavored  to  control  them  by 
their  own  unaided  efforts.  The  natives  now  gener- 
ally regard  the  river  sacrifices  of  children  as  disgrace- 
ful ;  and  sati,  since  its  abolition,  is  seldom  spoken  of 
but  with  condemnation.5 

Later  pandits  have  not  hesitated  to  rule  out  such 
Free  treat-  regulations  from  the  old  laws  as  did  not  seem 
mem  of  the  suitable  to  their  times,  upon  the  ground  that 

laws  in  later  '       r  & 

times.  they  were  established  for  a  less  advanced  age 
of  the  world.     In  the  progress  of  the  Hindus  came 


1  It  has  been  acutely  observed  [La  Cite  Antique,  chap,  xi.)  that  "the  principle  of  the 
divine  origin  of  laws  in  the  older  codes  made  it  impossible  for  their  subjects  definitely  to 
abrogate  them."  And  so  the  old  statutes  remained  side  by  side  with  later  ones  of  a  dif- 
ferent and  often  humaner  tenor.  In  this  way  we  may  partially  explain  the  contradictions 
with  which  these  codes  abound  ;  though,  as  we  shall  see,  the  rule  was  not  without  its 
exceptions,  even  in  the  remote  East. 

2  See  chapter  on  Rig  Veda,  p.  140.  s  Elliott's  N.  W.  hidia,  I.  250. 

4  Ludlow's  British  India,  II.  138,  149,  151. 

5  Ludlow,  II.  149;  Buyers's  Recoil,  of  N.  India,  132,  235;  Allen,  p.  41S. 


THE    LAWS    OF    MANU.  1 97 

denunciation  of  many  ancient  customs.  "  Among 
these,"  says  Mr.  Wheeler,  "  may  be  mentioned  the 
sacrifice  of  a  bull,  a  horse,  or  a  man ;  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  man  to  become  the  father  of  a  son  by  the 
widow  of  a  deceased  brother  or  kinsman  ;  the  slau£h- 
ter  of  cattle  at  the  entertainment  of  a  guest ;  and 
the  use  of  flesh  meat  at  the  celebrated  feasts  of  the 
dead,  still  performed  under  the  name  of  sraddhas." 

It  is  not  so  much  a  spirit  of  cruelty  that  darkens  the 
pages  of  this  Code  as  an  insatiate  self-abnega-  Supersti. 
tion,  which   in    many    respects    is   a   kind  of  tious  self" 

...  Ai/-         r    ii  11    •  •  -  abnegation. 

suicide.  And,  for  lull  answer  to  all  justinca-  its ksson. 
tion  of  human  nature  under  these  aspects,  it  may  seem 
sufficient  to  point  to  their  consequences.  "  Here,"  it 
may  be  said,  "is  the  end  of  Hindu  virtue;  here,  in 
Jagannath  and  his  car  of  human  slaughter,  in  Kali 
with  her  sword  of  human  sacrifice,  in  Mahadeva  with 
his  collar  of  sculls."  These  deities  have  been  greatly 
belied.1  The  Hindus  certainly  became  sensualized, 
—  from  causes  easy  to  trace.  If,  however,  we  should 
accept  the  facts  as  condemnatory  of  human  nature,  we 
must  admit  that  Christianity  does  not  reinstate  it,  since 
this  religion  fell  into  similar  degeneracy,  and  since  its 
theology  still  retains  this  dreadful  destructiveness  in 
an  ideal  form.  The  records  of  Christian  superstition 
are  more  dismal  than  those  of  Brahmanical.  The 
fanaticism  of  the  Donatist  and  the  human  sacrifice  of  the 
Hindu  are  of  kindred  nature.  It  has  been  well  said, 
that  "  England  and  France  have  pages  in  their  religious 
history  that  ought  to  cause  them  to  be  silent,  or  else  to 

1  "  Instances  of  victims  throwing  themselves  under  the  wheels  of  Jagannath  have  always 
been  rare,  and  are  now  unknown.  Nothing  could  be  more  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  Vishnu- 
worship  than  self-immolation."  (Hunter's  Orissa,  p.  134.)  The  great  mortality  among 
the  pilgrims  to  this  shrine  is  in  fact  due  to  neglect  of  sanitary  conditions.  The  symbols 
of  destruction  in  figures  of  the  other  deities  referred  to  have  more  relation  to  spirits  of 
e  .'il,  or  to  death  as  such,  than  to  human  sacrifice,  which  has  always  been  infrequent. 


198  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

bring  their  charges  of  cruelty  against  Hindu  rites  with 
some  humility."  It  has  been  computed  that  several 
millions  of  persons  have  been  burnt  as  heretics,  sorcer- 
ers, and  witches,  in  Europe,  during  the  period  of  Chris- 
tianity. In  Cadiz  and  Seville  alone  the  Inquisitors 
burned  two  thousand  Jews  in  a  single  year  (1481).1 
It  is  not  desirable  to  dwell  much  on  this  aspect  of  the 
subject.  But  why  should  all  these  dark  pictures 
combined  make  us  sceptical  concerning  the  spiritual 
faculties  of  man?  The  self-tortures  and  the  dismal 
fanaticisms  that  reach  through  the  long  history  of  his 
beliefs  are  not  there  to  prove  his  moral  incapacity  :  they 
even  teach  the  very  opposite.  They  are  birth-throes, 
blind  and  bitter  indeed,  but  none  the  less  genuine,  of 
his  divinity.  Let  us  face  the  worst.  There  is  the  Yogi, 
crawling  in  agonizing  postures  from  one  end  of  India 
to  the  other,  or  sitting  whole  days  between  scorching 
fires  and  gazing  at  the  sun  with  seared  eyeballs  and 
bursting  brain.  There  is  the  Shaman  cutting  himself 
with  knives,  the  Moloch  worshipper  passing  his  chil- 
dren through  flames,  the  Aztec  piercing  himself  with 
aloe  thorns  and  tearing  out  the  hearts  of  his  kinsmen 
on  the  reeking  teocalli.  There  are  Stylites  on  their 
columns,  Flagellants  beating  themselves  through  the 
streets  of  Christian  Europe,  and  all  the  mad  penances 
and  savage  suicides  of  the  Desert  Monks.  And  there 
is  Jesuit  Loyola  with  girdle  of  briers  and  merciless 
iron  whip ;  his  followers  giving  themselves  "  as  a 
corpse"  into  the  hands  of  "Grand  Masters,"  to  be 
used  at  their  absolute  will;  —  dismal  and  dreadful  in- 
centives to  a  contempt  of  human  nature,  that  almost 
start  the  doubt  whether  its  origin  be  not  from  some 
demoniacal  Power,  doomed  to  self-annihilation.     But 

1  Jost,  Gesch.  d.  Judeuihums,  III.  no. 


THE    LAWS   OF   MANU.  1 99 

other  scenes  are  at  command,  and  to  these  you  hasten 
that  you  may  recover  your  respect  for  life.  You  turn 
to  Christian  saints  dying  serenely  on  the  rack  and  at 
the  stake ;  to  the  great  martyrs  of  the  world's  later 
day,  witnesses  for  truth,  liberty,  and  love ;  and  stand 
at  last  reverently  on  Calvary  before  the  consummate 
sacrifice  to  which  you  ascribe  all  this  majesty  of  the 
soul.  You  seem  to  have  passed  from  death  to  life. 
"There,"  you  say,  "  man  was  on  the  brute's  level: 
here  he  becomes  a  God.  A  new  nature  has  surely 
descended  on  him."  But  that  is  impossible,  and  as 
needless  as  it.  is  impossible.  You  have  done  injustice 
to  the  soul.  Can  we  not  read  between  these  dark 
lines,  and  discern  that  the  endurance  for  errors,  how- 
ever dismal  and  demoniacal,  and  the  endurance  for 
truths,  however  benignant  and  divine,  have  one  point 
in  common,  and  that  of  utmost  significance?  Do  they 
not  at  least  assure  us  that  man  will  suffer  all  things 
for  what  he  believes  true  and  sacred?  It  is  not  mere 
superstitious  terror  that  makes  martyrs  even  to  super- 
stitions. Fear  does  not  explain  these  extremities  of 
self-sacrifice,  these  mournful  self-crucifixions,  —  but 
something  that  masters  fear.  They  hint  of  aspiration, 
they  cry  for  light,  they  assure  progress.  They  are 
impossible  without  a  sentiment  of  awe  before  duty, 
and  a  vision  of  triumph  beyond  pain.  They  are 
signs,  even  they,  that  man  has  in  his  very  substance, 
assurance  of  those  spiritual  dignities  which  he  has 
been  believed  to  owe  to  some  supernatural  change,  or 
some  all-creative  element,  introduced  by  Christian 
and  Jewish  revelation  alone. 


VI. 
WOMAN. 


WOMAN. 


HPHE  Dharmasastras    are  unquestionably  no  wiser 

on  the  nature  of  woman  than  the  Law 
of  Moses,  or  the  mythologists  of  Adam's  Fall,  Hindu  legis- 
Manu  is  as  positive  as  the  Christian  Apostle  latlon' 
was,  and  as  the  Christian  world  in  general  has  been 
hitherto,  that  man  is  her  appointed  head,  and  that  her 
prerogative  is  to  obey.  This  theory  of  the  sexes,  in 
spite  of  age  and  Scripture,  is  rapidly  vanishing,  with 
all  analogous  pretensions  that  "might  makes  right." 
And  it  is  of  less  import  now  to  discuss  its  evils  in  this 
or  that  form  of  society  than  it  is  to  note  the  remedial 
forces  in  human  nature  which  mitigated  those  evils, 
even  in  times  when  the  relative  "  might "  of  man  was 
in  most  respects  much  greater  than  it  is  now. 

The  general  status  of  woman  in  the  East  is  given 
in  the  declarations  of  the  Law  books,  that  she  is 
"  unfit  by  nature  for  independence,"  and  "  must  never 
seek  it ;  "  that  "  she  is  never  to  do  any  thing  for  her 
own  pleasure  alone  ;  "  that  "  a  wife  assumes  the  very 
qualities  of  her  husband,  as  a  river  is  lost  in  the  sea."1 
This  is  our  precious  modern  principle  of  "  feme 
covert"  in  its  purest  essence  !  —  The  widow  must  give 
herself    up    to    austerities     and    remain   unmarried, 

1  Manu,  V.  147,  148 ;  IX.  3,  22  ;  Ydj'n.,  I.  85.  The  old  Roman  Law  was  similar.  See 
Thierry,  Tableau  de  V Empire  Remain,  p.  279. 


204  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

preparing  for  reunion  in  the  next  life ; 1  while  the 
husband  could,  and  should,  marry  again.2  As  the 
Hebrew  law  allowed  husbands  to  put  away  their 
wives  on  the  plea  of  mere  "  uncleanness,"  so  the  Hindu 
made  mere  "  unkindness,"  as  well  as  barrenness  or 
disease,  sufficient  ground  for  supersedure ;  while  it 
exhorted  the  woman  on  her  part,  on  pain  of  bestial 
transmigrations,  to  revere  even  the  basest  husband  as 
a  god.3  The  Brahman  in  later  times,  like  the  Hebrew 
patriarch,  might  by  law  have  several  wives,  though 
of  different  castes,  having  claims  to  preference  ac- 
cording to  the  order  of  their  classes ;  and  neither  his 
wife,  child,  nor  slave,  could  hold  any  thing  as  abso- 
lute property.  He  could  take  every  thing  from  either 
of  them  or  from  all.4  This  was  an  incident,  affecting 
them  all  alike,  of  the  old  system  of  patriarchal  au- 
thority. The  custom  of  polyandry,  or  possession  of 
one  wife  by  several  husbands,  was  also  prevalent 
during  the  Middle  Ages  of  Hindu  history  ;  originating 
partly  in  the  necessity  of  male  offspring,  as  ground  of 
religious  hopes  as  well  as  source  of  physical  support.5 
This  was  the  theory,  —  easily  matched,  we  may 
remark,  in  Western  ideas  and  institutions,  even  of 
recent  time.  But  let  us  observe  the  counteractions 
provided  by  human  nature  to  its  worst  effects. 

1  Maim,  V.  157-162.  2  Ibid.,  V.  167-169;   Yajn.,  I.  89. 

s  Dent.  xxiv.  1 ;  Manu,  IX.  81  ;  V.  154;   Yajn.,  I.  77. 

4  Matin,  IX.  85  ;  VIII.  416.  "A  woman's  property  taken  by  her  husband  in  distress, 
or  for  performance  of  a1  duty,  he  need  not  restore  her."  (Yajn.,  II.  147.)  Yet  this  does 
not  involve  the  right  to  violate  other  laws,  which  are  very  stringent  in  protection  of  the 
property  rights  of  woman.  (Manu,  III.  52.  Macnaghten,  p.  43.)  The  language  in  the 
text  is  perhaps  too  strong.  Wilson  tells  us  (Essays  on  Sanskrit  Literature,  III.  17,  28) 
that  a  widow  in  India  was,  by  the  older  laws,  free  to  do  as  she  would  with  her  property ;  but 
in  later  times  efforts  were  made  to  deprive  her  of  this  right.  "At  present,  in  Bengal,"  he 
adds,  "a  woman  is  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  mistress  of  her  own  wealth." 

6  The  same  necessity  explains  the  custom  universal  among  savage  tribes,  and  even 
practised  by  more  advanced  ones,  like  the  Hebrew  tribe  of  Benjamin,  of  capturing  wives, 
and  dividing  them  among  the  captors ;  a  custom  which  tended  of  course  to  ensure  other 
qualities  of  bondage,  in  the  permanent  status  of  woman  under  ancient  laws. 


WOMAN.  205 

Woman  was  secured   against  total  enslavement  in 
rude  times  by  the  operation   of  two  causes.  Naturalde_ 
She  was  involuntarily  recognized  by  man  as  fences  of 
bringing  his  spiritual  deliverance,  and  as  ap-  woman- 
pealing  to  his  physical  power  for  protection. 

Of  these  recognitions,  the  former  was  due  to  her 
procreative  function.  In  early  times  a  man  Reiigious 
depended  for  safety,  for  help,  and  for  honor,  furtherance- 
on  the  number  of  his  children.  The  patriarch's  sons 
were  his  strength.  "  The  estimation  of  an  Egyptian," 
says  Herodotus,  "was,  next  to  valor  in  the  field,  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  his  offspring."  1  To  this 
day,  the  prayer  of  the  laborer  in  the  Nile  Valley  is 
for  many  children,  to  aid  him  in  his  toil.  They 
were  men's  hold  on  the  life  beyond  death.  "  Chil- 
dren," says  the  Greek  poet, 

"  Are  for  the  dead  the  saviors  of  fame  ; 
Even  as  corks  buoy  up  the  net  on  the  sea, 
Upholding  its  twisted  cord  from  the  abyss  beneath."2 

The  mysterious  principle  of  life,  as  transmitted  by 
the  seed  of  man,  is  the  earliest  object  of  veneration 
by  tribes  that  have  risen  above  the  condition  of  Fet- 
ichism.  As  essence  of  the  family  bond,  it  is  the  centre 
of  patriarchal  religion,  and  embodied  in  that  demand 
for  male  offspring,  which  determined  the  early  institu- 
tions of  the  principal  races  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Greek 
and  Roman  law  watched  for  ages  over  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  family  lines  through  male  offspring,  as  the 
ground-work  of  religious  rite  and  tradition.  It  is 
easy  to  explain  the  fact  that  interests  of  this  nature 
were  so  excessively  developed  among  the  Hindus.  In 
the  first  male  child  centred  the  religious  relations  with 

1  Herod.,  I.  136.  2  iEschyl.,  Choepkori,  497. 


206  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

past  and  future.  A  male  child  has  always  been  the 
primal  necessity  for  the  Oriental  man.  Through  a 
son  he  pays  his  progenitors  the  debt  for  the  gift  of  his 
own  life,  which  is  held  the  most  sacred  of  all  dues, 
and  assures  himself  of  the  like  payment  from  pos- 
terity.1 The  happiness  of  his  ancestors  was  believed 
by  the  Hindu  to  depend  on  the  performance  of  me- 
morial rites  in  their  honor  by  an  uninterrupted  line  of 
male  descendants.  For  was  it  not  through  a  son  that 
his  own  existence  became  a  part  of  that  continuous 
line  of  generations,  which  was  probably  the  first  and 
simplest  sign  to  man  of  his  own  immortality  ?  The 
laws  declare  that  "  by  a  son  one  obtains  victory,  by  a 
son's  son  immortality,  by  a  great-grandson  reaches  the 
solar  heaven."2  "By  a  son  he  overcomes  the  great 
darkness  (of  death)  :  this  the  ship  to  bear  him  across. 
There  is  no  life  to  him  who  has  no  son."  3  Kalidasa 
pictures  the  joy  of  a  king  in  the  birth  of  a  male  child, 
as  resembling  that  which  is  felt  by  the  Supreme,  at 
the  thought  that  Vishnu,  as  manifesting  His  own  sub- 
tance,  is  a  guarantee  of  the  stability  of  His  Universe.4 
The  Upanishads  record  the  tender  forms  by  which  a 
father  at  the  point  of  death  transfers  his  whole  being 
to  his  son.5  The  very  word  for  son  (Jnitra)  means 
deliverer  from  the  hell  called  -pat.  In  the  Mahab- 
harata,  a  saint  has  a  vision,  in  which  he  sees  his  an- 
cestors descending  into  this  limbo,  heads  downwards, 
in  consequence  of  the  extinction  of  their  male  line 
of  descendants  in  him.  The  laws  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  prescribed  adoption  to  the  father  who  had  no 
son,  as  his  sacred  duty  to  his  own  line.6 

1  Maim,  IX.  106,  107.  2  Manu,  IX.  137. 

3  Aitereya  Brahmana.     Roth,  in  Weber's  Ind.  Stud.,  I.  458. 

1  Raghuvatisa,  III.  E  Kaushitaki  Upan.  (Weber,  I.  409). 

0  See  references  in  La  Cite  A  ntigue,  I.  ch.  iv. 


WOMAN.  207 

Here  then  was  man  exalting  his  stronger  sex  to 
heaven,  finding  therein,  as  Christianity  did  after- 
wards, in  the  M  well-beloved  Son,"  the  ground  of  his 
salvation.  But  even  to  this  end  the  wife  and  mother 
was  by  nature,  after  all,  the  sole  and  sacred  path. 
The  gods  said  to  man  concerning  woman  :  "  In  her 
you  shall  be  born  again."  "The  husband,"  as  Manu 
expresses  it,  "  becomes  himself  an  embryo,  and  is 
born  a  second  time."1  And  so  marriage  became  of 
necessity  a  sacrament,  invested  with  the  sanctions  of 
conscience  and  piety.  Nature  enforced,  in  behalf 
of  woman,  the  respect  that  seemed  likely  to  be  re- 
fused. "  Since  immortality  and  heaven  come  through 
descendants,"  says  Yajnavalkya,  "  therefore  preserve 
and  honor  woman."  2 

So  Manu  :  — 

"  A  man  is  perfect  when  he  consists  of  three,  his  wife,  himself, 
and  his  son." 3 

"  A  wife  secures  bliss  to  the  manes  of  his  ancestors  and  to 
himself." 

"  She  is  as  the  goddess  of  abundance,  and  irradiates  his 
dwelling."  4 

Hence  the  great  simplicity  and  purity  of  marriage 
in  the  Vedic  times,  —  a  more  equal  and  just  relation  by 
far  than  in  those  of  Manu ;  though  nothing  in  the 
recorded  marriage  rites  of  later  times  indicates  other 
than  mutual  respect  and  unity  of  interests.5  Through 
this  religious  motive,  it  must  have  been  that  polyandry 
was  got  rid  of;  °  and  even  the  polygamy  of  still  more 

1  Manu,  IX.  8 ;  YSjn.,  I.  56.  2  Ydjn.,  I.  78. 

3  Manu,  IX.  45.  *  Ibid.,  IX.  28,  26. 

5  See  full  accounts  of  the  marriage  rites  of  the  Hindus  according  to  the  later  Vedas,  in 
Weber's  Indisclie  Studien,  vol.  v. 

6  This  custom  still  exists  in  some  parts  of  India,  as  among  the  Nairs,  and  is  ascribed 
by  Mr.  Justice  Campbell  to  the  modification  of  that  widely  spread  custom  among  the 
Hindus,  of  a  wife  passing  on  the  death  of  her  husband  to  his  brother:   "This  successive 


208  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

recent  ages  was  much  modified  by  it,  being  made 
rather  a  last  resort  where  the  religious  end  of  mar- 
riage could  not  otherwise  be  attained,  than  a  means 
of  gratifying  loose  and  lawless  desires.  Polygamy 
came  in  fact  to  be  prohibited  except  for  such  causes 
as  are  expressly  declared  just  grounds  for  dissolving 
the  marriage  contract,  among  which  long  continued 
barrenness  naturally  was  the  chief.1  Again,  as  with 
the  Hebrews,  the  necessity  of  securing  male  offspring 
led  to  the  transference  of  the  wife  by  her  husband  to 
a  near  relative,  or  sapinda,  for  the  purpose ;  but  the 
religious  motive  of  the  act  led  also  to  the  most  solemn 
precautions  lest  this  infringement  should  be  abused 
for  sensual  purposes.2 

These  are  a  few  of  the  legal  defences  that  inured 
to  woman  as  the  recognized  way  of  immortality  to 
him  whose  mere  brute  strength,  uncontrolled  by  such 
motives,  would  have  made  her  his  slave.  But  they 
give  only  a  faint  idea  of  that  fine  compensation  which 
nature  must  have  lent  her  weakness,  through  her 
hold  upon  man's  dearest  hopes. 

And  as  her  procreative  function  enlisted  on  her  be- 
Physica]  de.  half  his  religious  aspirations,  so  her  physical 
pendence.  inferiority  appealed  in  rude  times  to  his  gen- 
erosity and  tenderness.  The  laws  of  Manu  had 
the  grace  to  put  that  lifelong  dependence  to  which 
they  consigned    her    on   the    ground    of    protection.3 

holding  being  here  transformed  into  a  joint  contemporaneous  holding,"  where  the  great 
object,  that  of  obtaining  children,  could  not  otherwise  be  secured.  —  Ethnology  of  India, 
p.  135.  As  to  the  influence  of  this  belief  on  marriage  relations,  see  Ditandy,  Poesie 
Indienne,  p.  137. 

1  Macnaghten,  60.  2  Mann,  IX.  59,  60;   Yajn.,  I.  67,  68. 

3  Manu,  I.)  IX.  3.  In  rude  and  ill-governed  states  of  society,  even  polygamy  was  plainly 
in  many  respects  a  safeguard,  assigning  female  captives,  for  example,  to  a  recognized  status, 
under  the  care  of  a  husband,  and  in  the  partial  management  of  a  household.  Manu's 
sedulous  instructions  to  the  husband,  in  the  art  of  protecting  his  wife  by  employing  her  "  in 
the  collection  and  expenditure  of  wealth,  in  purifications  and  female  duty,  in  the  prepara- 


WOMAN.  209 

And  a  regard  to  her  helplessness  runs  through  the 
special  provisions  on  those  matters  in  which  she  was 
liable  to  be  oppressed.  On  certain  grounds,  even 
"for  bearing  only  female  children,"1  a  wife  might  be 
superseded;  but  "not  a  beloved  and  virtuous  wife," 
who  must  never  be  set  aside  without  her  consent.2 
A  superseded  wife  is  entitled  to  a  sufficient  mainte- 
nance in  all  cases  whatever.  "  It  is  a  crime  to  leave 
her  without  support."  3  Unmarried  daughters  inherit 
their  mother's  estate  equally  with  sons.4  So  in 
general,  though  the  wife's  fcculium,  or  special  prop- 
erty, made  up  of  six  different  kinds  of  gifts,  and  pro- 
nounced positively  hers,  could  nevertheless  be  used 
by  the  husband  in  case  of  distress ; 5  yet  a  special 
provision  consigns  to  torment  male  relations  who  take 
unjust  possession  of  a  woman's  property.6  A  wife 
could  not  be  held  liable  for  the  debts  of  a  husband 
or  a  son.7  A  good  wife  is  to  be  faithfully  supported 
by  her  husband,  though  married  against  his  inclina- 
tion, from  religious  duty.8  A  father  is  forbidden  to 
tacitly  sell  his  daughter  by  taking  a  gratuity  for  giving 
her  in  marriage ;  9  and  the  son  is  charged  to  protect 
his  mother  after  the  death  of  her  husband.10  Insanity 
in  a  husband,  impotence,  and  extreme  vice,  are  held 

tion  of  daily  food  and  the  superintendence  of  household  utensils"  (ix.  11),  are  evidently 
dictated  by  the  fear  of  trusting  her  to  her  own  dispositions,  which  are  regarded  as  her  most 
dangerous  enemies.  This  diligent  protection  and  preservation  of  the  wife  from  vice,  which 
is  made  so  essential  a  part  of  his  own  salvation,  savors  of  a  complacency  which  might  have 
been  rebuked,  had  woman  had  the  making  of  the  laws.  Yet,  as  things  were,  it  must  have 
proceeded  from  his  judgment  as  to  her  special  needs,  and  doubtless  expressed  a  real  sense 
of  her  physical  weakness  and  exposure  to  rude  assaults.  For  instance,  the  law  commands 
him,  "  if  he  have  business  abroad,  to  assure  a  fit  maintenance  to  his  wife  while  away;  for 
even  if  a  wife  be  virtuous,  she  may  be  tempted  to  act  amiss,  if  distressed  for  want  of  sub- 
sistence" (ix.  74). 

1  Yajn.,  I.  73.  2  Manu,  IX.  81,  82.  3  Yajn.,  I.  74- 

4  Macnaghten,  61 ;   Yajn.,  II.  117;  Mann,  IX.  192.  B  Macnaghten,  44. 

9  Manu,  III.  52.  '  Yajn.,  II.  46.  8  Manu,  IX.  95. 

9  Ibid.,  IX.  100.  10  Ibid.,  IX.  4. 

H 


2IO  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

sufficient  excuse  for  aversion  on  the  part  of  the  wife ; 
which  must  not  be  punished  by  desertion  nor  depriva- 
tion of  her  property.1 

And  this  regard  for  the  weakness  of  woman  could 
not  fail  to  lead  to  a  certain  appreciation  of  her  true 
strength.  Thus,  as  we  have  just  noted,  it  is  upon  her 
need  of  protection  that  Manu  bases  not  only  a  per- 
petual wardship,  but  a  most  vigilant  system  of  restric- 
tions and  occupations,  to  preserve  her  from  the  perils 
to  which  her  "  natural  frailty  "  was  presumed  to  ex- 
pose her.  But  the  injunctions  to  these  end  in  what 
for  this  presumption  is  decidedly  a  fatal  admission ; 
namely,  that  those  women  only  are  truly  secure 
"who  are  protected  by  their  own  good  inclinations."  2 
So  Rama  says,  "  No  enclosing  walls  can  screen  a 
woman.     Only  her  virtue  protects  her." 3 

In  fact,  a  far  greater  amount  of  domestic  tyranny 
has  been  presumed,  by  those  who  regard  only 

Domestic  r  J  . 

oppression  the  letter  of  the  law,  than  the  facts  will  war- 
overstated.  rant<  The  seclusion  of  females  which  prevails 
in  India,  for  example,  has  been  regarded  as  forming 
part  of  a  despotic  system.  But  it  is  probably  due  to 
other  causes,  in  the  main,  than  marital  jealousy  and 
distrust.  The  Brahmans  maintain  that  it  is  of  Mo- 
hammedan origin,  and  was  adopted  by  the  Hindus 
merely  in  self-defence  against  foreign  brutality.4 
With  both  Moslem  and  Hindu,  it  may  have  had  its 
origin  in  modest  reserve ;  in  that  instinctive  reverence 
which  penetrates  the  whole  life  of  Eastern  races,  and 
passing  in  the  course  of  ages,  like  every  thing  Orien- 
tal, into   a  rigid  etiquette.5     The  use  of  the  veil  by 

1  Manu,  IX.  79.  2  Ibid.,  IX.  12.  3  R&mayana. 

*  Wilson,  Theatre  of  the  Hindus,  Introd.,  xliii.  ;  Buyers,  Recollect.  0/  India,  p.  401. 

B  De  Vere,  Pictur.  Sketches  of  Greece  and  Turkey,  p.  270. 


WOMAN.  211 

Persian  females  seems  to  have  been  derived  from 
times  when  it  was  regarded  as  a  sign  of  dignity  and 
social  elevation.1  A  Buddhist  legend  illustrates  the  re- 
lation of  this  religion  to  democratic  reform  on  the 
subject.  The  wife  of  Buddha,  it  is  said,  rejected  the 
veil,  against  the  wishes  of  the  court,  immediately  after 
her  marriage,  saying :  "  Good  women  need  veiling  no 
more  than  the  sun  and  moon.  The  gods  know  my 
thoughts,  my  manners,  my  qualities,  my  modesty. 
Why  then  should  I  veil  my  face  ?  "  2  It  would  appear, 
too,  that,  in  spite  of  their  seclusion,  the  women  of  the 
upper  classes  exercise  as  much  influence  in  family 
affairs  as  among  Europeans.3  In  the  Hindu  epics, 
women  are  described  as  entirely  independent  in  their 
intercourse  and  movement,  travelling  where  they  will, 
and  showing  themselves  freely  in  public,  and  un- 
veiled.4 Married  women,  especially,  were  perfectly 
free  in  India  in  their  social  intercourse  with  the  other 
sex;5  and  Sakuntala,  in  the  drama,  pleads  her  own 
cause  at  the  court  of  King  Dushyanta,  and  even  boldly 
rebukes  him. 

But  these  hints  of  the  compensative  forces  of  nature 
in  behalf  of  woman  lead  us  still  farther.  Here  Recognition 
were  circumstances  scarcely  suited  to  demon-  ofwoman- 
strate  her  finer  spiritual  gifts.  Yet  Hindu  law  and 
literature  abound  in  proofs  that  woman  did  then,  as 
she  now  does,  compel  recognition  of  these  gifts ;  al- 
though it  may  have  been  shown  then,  as  it  has  since 
been,  more  by  the  service  of  the  lips  than  by  the  con- 
duct of  life. 

The  ages  we  are  now  studying  are  not  those  of  the 

1  Gobineau,  Relig.  et  Phil.  d.  I'Asia  Centrale,  p.  348. 

2  St.  Hilaire.  s  prichard,  Admin,  of  India,  II.  89. 
4  See  Williams,  Indian  Epic  Poetry,  p.  57. 

B  Wilson,  ut  supra. 


212  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

simple  Aryan  household,  where  husband  and  wife, 
equals  in  age,  in  rights,  in  serviceable  industries, 
hand  in  hand  ministered  to  the  holy  fires  on  their 
altars  and  hearths.1  They  are  ages  of  southern 
polygamy  and  caste ;  when  woman,  betrothed  in 
childhood,  was  in  law  for  ever  a  child,  superseded  at 
her  husband's  pleasure,  forbidden  to  read  the  Vedas 
or  to  take  part  in  religious  rites.  In  these  times,  too, 
the  epics  reveal  the  semi-barbarous  custom  of  poly- 
andry, although  this  possession  of  one  wife  by  several 
husbands  must  certainly,  even  in  the  stormy  social 
conditions  which  the  Mahabharata  describes,  have  been 
exceptional.2 

The  Ramayana,  indeed,  somewhat  later,  shows  pro- 
found respect  for  the  marriage  relation.  But  even 
this  poem,  abounding  in  manly  sentiments  towards 
women,  frequently  falls  into  the  tone  of  contempt 
which  their  perpetual  minority  suggested ;  as  where 
Rama  admonishes  Bharata  of  the  duty  of  a  ruler 
always  to  treat  them  with  courtesy,  while  he  should 
disregard  their  counsel,  and  withhold  from  them  all 
important  secrets. 

Yet,  under  such  circumstances  as  these,  observe 
what  the  law  itself  confessed.  Not  only  did  it  declare 
"  mutual  fidelity  till  death  the  supreme  duty  between 
husband  and  wife,3  and  "virtue,  riches,  love,  the 
three  objects  of  human  desire,"  to  be  "the  reward  of 
their  mutual  friendship,"4  and  pronounce  the  woman 
the  highest  beatitude  of  the  man."5     It  admonished 


1  See  Manu,  IX.  g6. 

2  In  Manu  indeed  it  is  not  mentioned,  and  Brahmanism  had  little  toleration  for  it.  The 
Himalaya  mountaineers  explain  the  custom  as  necessary  for  the  protection  of  women 
during  the  long  absence  of  their  husbands  on  distant  expeditions  for  trading  purposes. 
Lloyd's  Himalayas,  I.  255. 

s  Manu,  IX.  101.  4  Yajn.,  I.  74.  B  Ma?iu,  IX.  28. 


WOMAN.  213 

him  that ft  where  females  are  honored  the  deities  are 
pleased,  and  where  they  are  dishonored,  or  made 
miserable,  all  religious  rites  are  vain;"  while  "their 
imprecation  brings  utter  destruction  on  the  house."1 
The  inference  that  women  must  therefore  be  con- 
stantly supplied  with  ornaments  and  gay  attire  shows 
that  Eastern  and  Western  logic  on  these  matters  stands 
in  common  need  of  reconstruction  at  the  hands  of 
woman  herself.  But  the  law  went  deeper  than  man- 
ners. In  an  outburst  of  Oriental  reverence  it  proclaims 
a  mother  to  be  greater  than  a  thousand  fathers.2  In  a 
calmer,  didactic  mood,  it  defines  the  sum  of  all  duty  to 
consist  in  assiduous  service  of  one's  father,  mother, 
and  spiritual  teacher,  as  long  as  they  live,  holding 
them  "  equal  to  the  three  worlds  and  the  three  Vedas  ;  " 
and  even  commands  that  the  wife  of  the  teacher,  if  of 
the  same  class,  shall  be  treated  with  the  respect  shown 
to  himself.3  In  the  Sraddha,  or  memorial  rite  in  honor 
of  the  pitris,  or  ancestors,  those  on  the  female  side 
must  not  be  forgotten.4  The  Swayamvara  form  of 
marriage,  after  free  choice  of  a  husband  by  the 
maiden,  is  celebrated  by  the  later  poets  as  well  as 
in  the  Vedas.5  And  Burnouf  has  gone  so  far  as  to 
affirm  that  marriage  in  India  was  never  a  state  of 
servitude  for  woman.6  It  is  certain  that,  of  the  four 
forms  of  marriage  recognized  as  valid  by  Manu, 
neither  necessarily  involved  such  subjection  ;  while,  in 
the  Prajapatya  form,  bride  and  bridegroom  are  dis- 
tinctly enjoined  "to  perform  together  their  civil  and 
religious  duties."7 

We  have  here,   it  is  true,  no   such  testimonies  as 

1  Manu,  III.  55-62.  2  Ibid.,  II.  145.  s  Ibid.,  II.  210. 

*  Yajn.,  I.  242;  III.  4.  6  R.  V.,  I.  116;  Raghuvanda,  VI. 

6  Essay  on  tlie  Veda,  p.  213.  7  Manu,  III.  27-30. 


214  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

those  of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  concerning  Egypt, 
who  inform  us  that  in  that  country  it  was  customary 
for  the  husband  to  obey  the  wife,  and  for  women  to 
manage  business  affairs  while  the  men  plied  the  loom 
at  home.1  Yet  Yajnavalkya  specifies  certain  classes 
of  women  whose  debts  their  husbands  were  bound  to 
pay,  because  dependent  on  their  labor  for  support.2 
And  Wilson  tells  us  that  all  the  contempt  shown  by 
the  Hindus  for  women  was  learned  by  them  of  their 
Mohammedan  masters.3  The  Ramayana  shows  us 
King  Dasaratha  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  his  wicked 
wife,  entreating  her  to  release  him  from  his  promise 
to  grant  her  any  boon  she  might  ask.  In  fact,  Hindu 
literature  abounds  in  amusing-  illustrations  of  submis- 
siveness  in  husbands  to  wives  as  well  as  in  wives  to 
husbands.4 

The  gentleness  of  Hindu  character  was  favorable 
to  the  sway  of  these  subtler  forces.     This  has 

Influence  on  m  ,    . 

public  af-  been  shown  on  a  great  scale  in  political, 
fairs.  mercantile,  and  domestic  life.     Women   have 

ruled  empires  in  India,  as  in  Egypt  and  Assyria,  and 
had  their  full  share  in  bringing  about  the  frequent 
wars  and  revolutions  of  the  petty  Hindu  States.  The 
Indian  epic,  like  the  Greek  and  the  Teutonic,  cele- 
brates feminine  control  over  the  military  destinies  of 
states,  and  Kalidasa  describes  the  admirable  govern- 
ment of  Ayodhya  by  a  mythic  queen.5 

Among  the  native  rulers  who  have  heroically  re- 
sisted foreign  invaders,  none  have  shown  stronger 
qualities  than  Lakshmi  Baee,  the  Rani,  or  queen,  of 
Jhansi ;  whose  wonderful  generalship  held  the  British 

>  Diod.,  I.  27  ;  Herod.,  II.  35.  !  Y&Jn.,  II.  48. 

3  Essays  on  Sanskrit  Literature,  III.  17.  4  See  Wheeler's  India,  II.  569-572. 

8  Raghuvania,  XIX. 


WOMAN.  215 

army  in  check;  and  who  headed  her  troops  in  person, 
dressed  as  a  cavalry  officer,  and  was  killed  on  the 
field.  Sir  Hugh  Rose  declared  that  the  best  man  on 
the  enemy's  side  was  the  Rani  of  Jhansi.1  Another 
Rani,  Aus  Kour,  being  elevated  by  the  British  to  the 
disputed  throne  of  Pattiala  in  the  Panjab,  an  utterly 
disorganized  and  revolted  state,  "as  the  only  person 
competent  to  govern  it,"  is  recorded  by  the  historian 
to  have  changed  its  whole  condition  in  less  than  a 
year,  reducing  rebellious  villages,  bringing  up  the 
revenues,  and  establishing  order  and  security  every- 
where.9 

Malika  Kischwar,  queen  dowager  of  Oude,  educated 
her  son,  who  was  dispossessed  in  1866,  to  a  knowledge 
of  ancient  and  modern  literature,  resulting  in  his  be- 
coming an  author  of  high  repute,  and  surrounding  her 
and  himself  with  persons  of  literary  distinction. 

Aliah  Bae,  the  Mahratta  queen  of  #Malwa,  -for 
twenty  years  preserved  peace  in  her  dominions,  devot- 
ing herself  to  the  rights,  happiness,  and  culture  of  her 
people.  It  was  said  of  her  that  it  would  have  been 
regarded  as  the  height  of  wickedness  to  become  her 
enemy,  or,  if  need  were,  not  to  die  in  her  defence. 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans  united  in  prayers  that  her 
life  might  be  lengthened.  And  of  so  rare  a  modesty 
was  this  great  queen,  that  she  ordered  a  book,  which 
sounded  her  praises,  to  be  destroyed,  and  took  no  notice 
of  the  author. 

Notwithstanding  certain  precepts,  the  law  has  practi- 
cally allowed  women  a  larger  share  in  the  manage- 
ment of  property  than  the  statutes  of  most  Christian 
nations ;    and  they  have  shown  abundant  shrewdness 

1  Arnold's  Dalhousk,  II.  153.  2  Griffin's  Rajahs  of  tlie  Panjab,  p.  138. 


2l6  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

and  tact  in  trade.  "In  family  affairs,  secular  or  relig- 
ious, their  influence  is  very  great,  and  almost  supreme. 
Seldom  can  a  man  complete  any  important  business 
transaction,  without  having  settled  the  matter  with  his 
privy  council,  in  the  female  apartments."1  "As  the 
law  in  Ceylon,"  says  Tennent,  "recognizes  the  abso- 
lute control  of  the  lady  over  the  property  conveyed  to 
her  use,  the  custom  of  large  marriage  portions  to 
woman  has  thrown  an  extraordinary  extent  of  the 
landed  property  of  the  country  into  the  hands  of  the 
females,  and  invested  them  with  corresponding  propor- 
tion of  authority  in  its  management."2  A  recent  very 
careful  work  on  India  tells  us  that  "  in  the  family  circle, 
and  daily  rounds  of  domestic  duties,  interests,  and 
enjoyments,  the  Hindu  woman  has  a  field  for  her 
sympathies  which  puts  her  quite  on  a  level  with  her 
sisters  of  the  West."3 

Nor  have  £he  intellectual  capacities  of  women  failed 
intellectual  of  respect.  There  are  hymns  in  the  Rig  Veda 
recognition,  by  female  rishis.4  Malabar  boasts  seven  ancient 
sages,  and  four  of  them  were  women.  The  moral 
sentences  of  Avyar  are  taught  in  the  schools,  as  golden 
rules  of  life ;  and  they  certainly  deserve  the  name. 
Here  are  a  few  specimens  :  — 

"  Honor  thy  father  and  mother.  Forget  not  the  favors  thou 
hast  received.  Learn  while  thou  art  young.  Seek  the  society  of 
the  good.  Live  in  harmony  with  others.  Remain  in  thy  own 
place.  Speak  ill  of  none.  Ridicule  not  bodily  infirmities.  Pursue 
not  a  vanquished  foe.  Deceive  not  even  thy  enemy.  Forgiveness 
is  sweeter  than  revenge.  The  sweetest  bread  is  that  earned  by 
labor.  Knowledge  is  riches.  What  one  learns  in  his  youth  is  as 
lasting  as  if  engraven  on  stone.  The  wise  is  he  who  knows  him- 
self.     Speak  kindly  to  the  poor.      Discord  and  gambling  lead  to 

1  Buyers,  p.  399.  *  Christianity  in  Ceylon,  p.  157. 

8  Prichard,  Administr-  of  India,  II.  89.  l  Weber,  Vorlesimgen,  37,  38. 


WOMAN.  217 

misery.  He  misconceives  his  interest  who  violates  his  promise. 
There  is  no  tranquil  sleep  without  a  good  conscience,  nor  any  virtue 
without  religion.  To  honor  thy  mother  is  the  most  acceptable 
worship.     Of  woman  the  fairest  ornament  is  modesty. "  ' 

A  little  Hindu  work  on  "  Deccan  Poets,"  by  a  pandit, 
Rameswamie  (Calcutta,  1829),  tells  us  that  Avyar, 
supposed  by  some  to  have  been  a  foundling,  was  ven- 
erated as  the  daughter  of  Brahma  and  Sarasvati. 
She  was  the  child  of  a  Brahman  by  a  low-caste 
woman,  like  Vyasa  and  other  great  Hindu  person- 
ages, and,  though  brought  up  by  a  singer  of  the  servile 
class,  excelled  all  her  brothers  and  sisters  in  learning, 
and  wrote,  besides  poetry,  on  astronomy,  medicine, 
chemistry,  and  geography.  The  same  work  mentions 
many  other  female  poets,  among  them  the  daughter 
of  a  potter. 

Though  the  law  prohibited  women  from  teaching 
the  Vedas,  we  know  that  priestesses  were  teachers  of 
princes.  We  know  that  there  were  Brahmanical 
schools,  not  unlike  the  famous  Saracen  Colleges  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  at  which  kings,  priests,  and  women 
united  in  the  enthusiastic  study  of  metaphysical  and 
moral  science ;  and  of  the  women  it  is  reported  that 
some  astonished  the  masters  by  the  depth  and  sub- 
limity of  their  thought,  and  that  others  delivered 
responses  from  a  state  of  trance.2 

In  the  Dramas,  women  always  speak  in  the  Prakrit 
or  common  dialects,  while  men  use  the  Sanskrit  or 
"holy"  speech.  These  softer  popular  dialects  derived 
by  decomposition  from  the  Sanskrit  are  believed  by 
Renan  to  be  special  consequences  of  the  female  organ- 
ization, and  to  prove  its  independent  activity  in  the 

1  From  Schoberl's  Hindustan  in  Miniature. 

2  Megasthenes,  Nearchus  in  Strata,  XV. ;  Weber,  ai. 


2l8  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

structure  of  the  language.1  More  significant  is  the 
fact  that  the  Prakrit,  thus  proper  to  woman,  and  by 
her  means  introduced  into  literature,  has  gradually 
supplanted  the  Sanskrit,  and  forms  the  basis  of  the 
present  spoken  languages  of  India.  So  that  the  stamp 
of  female  influence  is  in  fact  conspicuous  in  the  his- 
torical development  of  Hindu  speech,  as  an  informing 
and  determining  force. 

It  would  require  a  separate  volume  to  render  justice 
to  the  fine  appreciation  of  womanly  qualities 

Literary  ap-  x  x  J      x 

preciationof  in  what  we  already  know  of  Hindu  literature. 
It  has  been  noticed  that,  in  recognizing  these, 
the  poets  abandon  exaggeration  and  draw  from  na- 
ture.2 Nothing  could  be  more  tender  and  noble  than 
these  ideal  pictures,  covering,  too,  so  wide  a  range  of 
destiny  and  desire  :  the  chaste  love  of  Rama  and  Sita, 
—  her  courage,  fortitude,  and  womanly  dignity  under 
his  unjust  suspicions,  her  mastery  of  all  forms  of  evil 
by  moral  purity  and  spiritual  insight ;  the  fidelity  of 
Damayanti  to  her  unhappy  Nala,  tempted  by  an  evil 
spirit  first  to  play  away  his  crown,  and  then  to  flee 
from  her  for  shame  at  his  beggary,  but  followed  and 
redeemed  at  last  by  that  loyalty  of  love,  which  thought 
only  of  the  misery  he  must  endure  in  offending  against 
his  nobler  nature  ;  the  piety  of  Savitri,  controlling  fate, 
charming  the  god  of  death  himself,  by  her  wisdom 
and  love,  into  giving  back  life  to  her  dead  husband, 
and  sight  to  his  blind  father,  with  his  lost  crown,  and 
the  glory  of  his  fallen  race.3  Equally  intuitive  is  the 
sense  of  woman's  power  to  inspire  a  noble  manhood 
with  absolute  devotion.     The  Mahabharata  describes 


1  De  FOrigine  du  Langage,  Pref.  p.  28. 

2  M onier  Williams,  Indian  Epic  Poetry,  p.  54. 

8  Savitri  and  Satyavan,  Episode  of  the  Maliabharata. 


WOMAN.  219 

the  passionate  love  of  Rurus,  imploring  the  gods  to 
restore  his  Pramadvara,  and  offering  to  yield  up  his 
own  lifetime  to  be  added  to  hers. 

"  I  give  thee  half  my  future  days,  beloved, 
Light  to  renew  thy  life  be  drawn  from  mine."  ' 

And  Kalidasa  gives  us  the  tale,  wrought  out  in  East- 
ern traits,  of  the  wasting  grief  of  good  prince  Adja 
for  his  young  wife,  whom  the  fall  of  celestial  flowers 
on  her  bosom  has  called  away  from  earth  ;  pursuing 
his  Indumati  through  all  sweet  perfumes  and  sounds 
and  forms,  refusing  to  turn  away  his  mind  or  to  be 
comforted,  the  mighty  grief  slowly  dividing  his  soul, 
as  a  bough  will  rend  the  wall  into  which  it  grows, 
until  after  "  wearing  through  eight  years  of  pain, 
patiently  and  faithfully  for  his  young  son's  sake,  living 
on  pictures  and  images  of  his  beloved,  and  on  fleeting 
transports  of  reunion,  in  his  dreams,"  he  freely  lays 
aside  the  ruined  body  for  an  immortal  life,  with  the 
lost  one,  and  among  the  gods.2  In  Hindu  poetic  jus- 
tice the  fickleness,  unfaithfulness,  or  harsh  suspicion 
towards  true  womanly  love,  which  so  often  recurs  in 
Eastern  story,  is  always  visited  by  remorse,  distraction, 
or  despair ;  and  even  where  changes  of  heart  are  as- 
cribed to  the  malevolence  of  evil  powers  or  the  male- 
dictions of  offended  saints,  they  are  in  no  wise  freed 
from  these  penalties,  which  teach  humility  and  truth, 
while  they  honor  outraged  virtue  by  proving  it  be- 
friended by  the  eternal  laws.3  What  European  poet 
knows  better  than  Kalidasa  how  gracious  a  soul  is 
born  in  nature  at  the  touch  of  woman?  Sakuntala, 
cherishing  her  plants  like  a  sister, 

1  Mahabk.,  I.       f  2  Raghuvansa,  VIII. 

3  See  especially  Sakuntala  and  the  Ramayana. 


220  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

"  Never  moistening  in  the  stream 
Her  own  parched  lips,  till  she  had  fondly  poured 
Its  purest  water  on  their  thirsty  roots, 
And  oft,  when  she  would  fain  have  decked  her  hair 
With  their  thick  clustering  blossoms,  in  her  love 
Robbing  them  not  e'en  of  a  single  flower,"  ' 

infuses  into  them  her  own  affections  :  the  woods,  the 
flowers,  the  forest  creatures,  feel  her  coming  and  going 
like  the  breath  of  life  and  the  blast  of  death. 

"  In  sorrow  for  her  loss  the  herd  of  deer 
Forget  to  browse  ;  the  peacock  on  the  lawn 
Ceases  its  dance  ;  the  very  trees  around 
Shed  their  pale  leaves  like  tears,  —  while  they  dismiss 
Their  dear  Sakuntala.  with  loving  wishes."  2 

"  He  who  would  wish  her  to  endure  the  hardships  of 
penance  would  attempt  to  sever  the  hard  wood  with 
the  blue  leaf  of  the  lotus."  She  is  "the  mellowed 
fruit  of  virtuous  actions  in  some  former  birth."  —  Wild 
beasts  respect  the  holiness  of  Damayanti,  wandering 
in  the  deserts ;  the  noisy  caravan  halts,  and  the  rough 
men  beseech  for  her  benediction.3  The  poet  of  the 
Mahabharata  sings  the  praise  of  woman  like  an  earlier 
Schiller.  The  wife  is  "  man's  other  half,  his  inmost 
friend,  source  of  his  bliss,  root  of  his  salvation ;  friend 
of  the  solitary  one,  consoling  him  with  sweet  words, 
in  his  duties  like  a  father,  in  his  sorrows  like  a 
mother."  She  reproves  his  neglect  of  manly  duties, 
and  admonishes  him  of  the  forgotten  God  within  him, 
the  witness  and  judge  of  human  deeds.  Deserted  by 
her  husband,  who  refuses  to  recognize  her,  the  Sa- 
kuntala of  the  epic  says  with  dignity:  "Thou,  who 
knowest  what  is  true  and  what   is   false,   O  King ! 

1  Williams's  translation.  2  Ibid. 

3  Nala  and  Damayanti,  Episode  of  the  Mahabharata. 


WOMAN.  221 

scorning  this  child  of  our  love,  bringest  shame  on 
thyself.  Thinking,  *  I  am  alone,'  thou  hast  forgotten 
that  beholder  from  of  old,  who  is  in  the  heart.  Doing 
wickedly,  thou  imaginest,  r  No  one  knows  it  is  I.' 
But  the  gods  know,  and  the  witness  within  thee  :  sun 
and  moon,  day  and  night,  their  own  hearts,  and  the 
justice  of  God,  behold  the  deeds  of  men.  The  spirit 
that  dwells  within  us  judges  us  hereafter." 

Sita,  the  ideal  wife  in  the  Ramayana,  is  Rama's 
"  primeval  love,"  not  less  tenderly  human  for  being 
divine.  She  compels  him,  by  her  devotion,  to  take  her 
with  him  into  his  exile  in  the  wilderness,  overpowering 
his  reason  and  will  alike  by  the  higher  wisdom  of 
love.  She  rebukes  him  for  his  anger  against  even 
the  Rakshasas,  demon  foes  of  gods  and  men,  as  un- 
becoming one  who  had  assumed  the  consecration  of 
a  religious  life ;  and  warns  him  to  subdue  the  first 
risings  of  evil  desire,  since  even  a  great  mind  may 
contract  guilt  through  neglecting  almost  imperceptible 
moral  distinctions :  with  which  frankness  Rama  is 
delighted,  and  replies,  "O  Sita,  one  who  is  not  ad- 
monished is  not  beloved.  You  have  spoken  becom- 
ingly, and  you  are  my  companion  in  virtue,  and 
dearer  to  me  than  life."1  Fully  to  appreciate  this 
recognition  of  womanhood,  we  must  remember  that 
Rama  is  nothing  less  than  incarnated  deity. 

Even  the  wife  of  the  demon  Ravana,  the  Satan  of 
the  epic,  warns  him  against  gratifying  his  sensual 
passions  on  the  person  of  his  beautiful  captive  ;  "  for 
he  who  forces  the  inclination  of  a  woman  shall  die  an 
early  death,  or  become  the  prey  of  endless  disease." 
The  Ramayana  likens  "  the  wind  that  drives  away  the 
white  lotus  from  the  too  thirsty  bees  "  to  "  the  modesty 

1  R&mayana,  B.  II. 


222  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

that  drives  the  coy  bride  from  her  husband."  Sita,  on 
her  part,  can  forgive  her  crudest  enemies.  Saved 
from  their  hands,  she  says,  "Why  should  I  revenge 
myself  on  the  servants  of  Ravana,  whom  harsh  com- 
mands drove  to  injure  me?  What  I  have  suffered 
pays  the  penalty  for  a  former  life.  I  would  not  punish 
others  who  are  also  enforced  to  evil."  What  exquisite 
sense  of  the  fine  divination  of  womanly  love  is  in  the 
picture  of  Damayanti,  surrounded  by  the  gods,  who, 
to  deceive  her,  have  all  taken  the  form  of  her  chosen 
Nala,  and  mingle  in  the  crowd  of  suitors,  in  her 
father's  hall ! 

"And  Damayanti  trembled  with  fear,  and  folded  her  hands  in 
reverence  before  the  gods,  praying  them  to  resume  their  immortal 
shapes,  and  reveal  Nala,  that  she  might  choose  him  for  her  lord  in 
presence  of  all.  Then  the  gods  wondered  at  her  truth  and  love, 
and  revealed  straightway  the  tokens  of  their  godhead.  And 
Damayanti  saw  the  four  bright  gods,  and  knew  they  were  not 
mortal  heroes  ;  for  there  was  no  sweat  on  their  brows,  nor  dust  on 
their  garme'nts,  and  their  garlands  were  fresh  as  if  the  flowers  were 
just  gathered,  and  their  feet  touched  not  the  earth.  And  she  saw 
also  the  true  Nala ;  for  he  stood  before  her  with  shadow  falling  to 
the  ground,  and  twinkling  eyes  and  drooping  garland,  and  moisture 
was  on  his  brow,  and  dust  on  his  raiment.  And  she  went  and  took 
the  hem  of  his  garment,  and  threw  a  wreath  of  radiant  flowers 
around  his  neck,  and  thus  chose  him  for  her  lord.  And  a  sound  of 
wild  sorrow  burst  from  all  the  Rajahs  ;  but  the  gods  and  sages 
cried  aloud,  '  Well  done  ! '  And  Nala  said,  '  Since,  O  maiden  !  you 
have  chosen  me  for  your  husband,  in  presence  of  the  gods,  know 
that  I  will  be  your  faithful  consort,  ever  delighting  in  your  words, 
and  so  long  as  my  soul  shall  inhabit  this  body  I  solemnly  vow  to 
be  thine,  and  thine  alone.' "  ' 

The  lamentation  of  Tara,  the  wife  of  Bali,  over  the 
dead  body  of  her  husband,  is  as  touching  and  noble 
as  any  thing  in  poetry. 

1  Wheeler's  History  of  India,  I.  484. 


WOMAN.  223 

"Why  lookest  thou  so  dull  on  thy  child,  thou,  to  whom  thy 
children  were  so  dear  ? 

"  Thy  face  seems  to  smile  on  me  in  the  bosom  of  death,  as  if 
thou  wert  alive. 
"  I  see  thy  glory  still  like  sunset  on  a  mountain's  head."  * 

As  the  moral  interest  of  the  Iliad  centres  in  the 
nemesis  that  follows  crime  against  the  sancti- 

0  Woman  the 

ties  of  wedded  life,  so  that  of  the  Ramayana  inspiration 
centres  in  the  public  and  private  calamities  °  l  e  pos' 
naturally  incident  to  polygamy.  It  is  the  attempt  of 
one  of  the  king's  wives  to  set  aside  the  rights  of  the 
son  of  another,  in  the  interest  of  her  own  offspring, 
that  brings  about  the  exile  of  Rama,  the  misery  of  the 
people,  the  death  of  the  unwise,  uxorious  king  him- 
self, the  capture  of  Sita,  and  the  war  for  her  recovery ; 
and  this  last  portion  of  the  epic  is  but  a  Hindu  counter- 
part of  the  Trojan  war  in  punishment  of  the  rape  of 
Helen.  But  while  the  Greek  heroine  shares  the  crim- 
inality of  her  captor,  the  Hindu  Sita  is  the  ideal  of 
the  faithful  wife. 

The  crime  which  leads  on  the  woes  depicted  in  that 
other  great  Hindu  epic,  the  Mahabharata,  is  a  gam- 
bling match,  in  which  a  monarch,  made  desperate  by 
continual  losses,  finally  plays  away  his  own  wife,  —  an 
atrocity  which  is  rebuked  on  the  spot  by  a  Brahman, 
who  represents  the  eternal  ethical  law  ;  protesting  that 
Judhishthira  "  lost  himself  before,  he  staked  his  wife, 
and  having  first  become  a  slave  could  no  longer  have 
the  power  to  stake  Draupadi." 

Without  entering  into  definite  criticism  of  all  these 
ideals,  I  cannot  forbear  quoting  the  excellent  remarks 
of  Monier  Williams  in  his  sketch  of  Indian  Epic  Poetry. 

1  Ramayana,  B.  iv. 


224 


RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 


"Sita,  Draupadi,  and  Damayanti,"  he  says,  "engage 
our  affections  and  interest  far  more  than  Helen  or  even 
Penelope.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  in  these  delight- 
ful portraits  we  have  true  representations  of  the  purity 
and  simplicity  of  Hindu  domestic  manners  in  early 
times.  Children  are  dutiful  to  their  parents  and  sub- 
missive to  their  superiors ;  younger  brothers  are  re- 
spectful to  their  elder  brothers;  parents  are  fondly 
attached  to  their  children,  and  ready  to  sacrifice  them- 
selves for  their  welfare ;  wives  are  loyal,  devoted, 
obedient  to  husbands,  yet  show  much  independence 
of  character,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  express  their  own 
opinions ;  husbands  are  tenderly  affectionate  towards 
their  wives,  and  treat  them  with  respect  and  courtesy ; 
daughters  and  women  generally  are  virtuous  and 
modest,  yet  spirited,  and  when  occasion  requires 
courageous  :  love  and  harmony  reign  throughout  the 
family  circle.  It  is  in  depicting  scenes  of  domestic 
affection,  and  expressing  these  feelings  that  belong  to 
human  nature  in  all  times  and  places,  that  Sanskrit 
epic  poetry  is  unrivalled." 

Reverence  for  motherhood  is  here  carried  beyond 
all  other  forms  of  respect  for  natural  ties.  The  divine 
sons  of  Dasaratha,  all  gods,  all  bow  at  the  feet  of 
their  human  mothers.  Rama,  obliged  to  go  into  exile 
that  his  father  may  not  break  his  vow,  is  indeed  un- 
moved by  his  mother's  unmeasured  distress,  and  can- 
not concede  the  claims  she  founds  on  the  Sastras 
themselves,  to  greater  respect  and  obedience  than  is 
due  even  to  a  father;  yet  from  his  exile  he  sends 
messages  of  profound  affection  to  her,  and  even  to 
that  other  wife  of  his  father  whose  criminal  ambition 
was  the  cause  of  his  own  disinheritance,  and  bids  his 


WOMAN.  225 

brother  Bharata  pay  every  form  of  pious  attention  to 
both. 

The  inspiration  of  these  two  great  epics  is  indeed 
nothing  else  than  the  Worth  of  Woman.    They  .  ,   , 

O  -'  J    And  of  my- 

celebrate  her  not  only  as  imparting  a  divine  thoiogy  in 
dignity  to  every  sacrifice  for  her  sake,  but  as  ge 
conquering  all  moral  evil  through  her  constancy  and 
faith.  In  this  whole  cycle  cf  mythology,  it  is  always 
woman  who  destroys  the  dreaded  powers,  and  revives 
the  energy  of  good.  In  the  natural  symbolism  of  the 
Rig  Veda,  "the  divine  Night  arrives,  an  immortal 
goddess,  shining  with  innumerable  eyes,  scattering 
darkness  with  their  splendors ;  and  men  come  to  her 
as  birds  to  their  nests.  She  drives  away  the  wolf  and 
the  thief,  and  bears  them  safely  through  the  gloom."1 
And  the  Dawn  arrives,  "a  daughter  of  the  sky,  shin- 
ing on  them  like  a  young  wife,  arousing  every  living 
being  to  his  work,  bringing  light  and  striking  down 
darkness  ;  leader  of  the  days  ;  lengthener  of  life  ;  for- 
tunate, the  love  of  all,  who  brings  the  eye  of  the 
god."2  Woman  prepares  the  holy  fire.  "The  great 
sacred  mothers  of  the  sacrifice  have  uttered  praise, 
and  decorate  the  child  of  the  sky."3 

It  is  remarkable,  in  view  of  the  reverence  of  Hindu 
life  for  male  offspring,  that  the  later  theogonies  com- 
bine male  and  female  elements,  and  treat  both  sexes 
as  equally  necessary  to  the  conception  of  deity.  Crea- 
tion, in  Manu  as  well  as  in  the  Upanishads,  proceeds 
from  the  divine  Love  or  Desire,  becoming  twain,  male 
and  female.4  This  co-essentiality  of  the  two,  for  all 
manifestation  of  the  absolute,  is  common  to  the  Hindu, 

1  R.  V.,  X.  127.  2  R.  V.,  VII.  77. 

8  R.  V.,  IX.  33,  5.     Perhaps  symbolical  expressions,  yet  not  the  less  significant. 

4  Manu,  I.  32  ;  BriJiad  Up.  I. "43 ;  Wilson's  Essays  en  Hindu  Religion,  I.  241,  245. 

15 


226  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

Egyptian,  and  Phoenician  religions.  The  deities  are 
androgynous,  whether  Brahma-Maya,  Osiris-Isis,  or 
Baal-Baut ;  or  they  flow  in  series  of  twofold  ema- 
nations through  all  pantheistic  cosmogonies,  Oriental, 
Gnostic,  Neo-Platonic,  under  names  not  so  familiar 
as  even  these,  — names  which  it  is  needless  to  enumer- 
ate. In  most  cases  the  divine  equality  of  sex  is  still 
further  represented  by  the  fact  that  these  wives  of  the 
deities  are  also  their  sisters,  and  thus  co-eternal.  It 
is  a  striking  illustration  of  that  greater  breadth  of  sym- 
pathy we  have  already  noted  in  polytheistic  and  pan- 
theistic forms  of  religion,  as  compared  with  intensely 
monarchical,  that  this  cosmogonic  recognition  of  the 
equality  in  the  sexes  was  confined  to  the  former  class. 
Thus  it  is  quite  unknown  to  the  old  monotheistic 
severit}'  of  the  Hebrew  faith,  as  well  as  to  the  distinc- 
tively Christian,  in  its  original  form,  which  prefers  the 
masculine  alike  in  its  name  of  God  and  its  choice  of 
Saviour.  Only  with  latest  heresy  does  God,  as  God, 
come  to  stand  as  "  Our  Mother."  1  Honor  to  deity  as 
mother  was  indeed,  both  in  Hindu  and  Egyptian  wor- 
ship, carried  to  a  point  beyond  what  was  rendered  to 
any  male  function  or  authority.  To  Isis,  greatest  of 
Egyptian  divinities,  whose  myriad  names  were  woven 
into  this  one,  the  most  tender  of  all,  answers  the  Vedic 
Aditi,  "  Mother  of  all  the  gods."2 

And  not  less  significant  is  the  fact  that  in  all  the 
The  word  older  Eastern  religions  "the  Word"  is  feminine. 
feminine.     Thought,  in  its  purest  symbol,  is  thus  awarded 


1  So  it  is  only  in  the  later  Kabbalistic  theology  of  the  Hebrews,  subsequent  to  Greek 
and  Oriental  influences  on  their  faith,  that  we  find  the  first  emanation  of  Deity  conceived 
as  "the  great  Mother."  (Sohar.  See  Berthold's  Christologia,  §  23.)  And  the  Book  of 
the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  under  similar  influences,  praises  its  female  " oo<j>ia,"  as  the 
mirror  of  the  power  of  God. 

2  Herodotus,  II.  40;  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses. 


WOMAN.  227 

to  the  physically  weaker  sex.  In  India,  as  Sarasvati, 
woman  is  the  genius  of  art,  literature,  eloquence,  —  is, 
in  short,  "  the  Word  ;  "  ever  the  holiest  symbol  to  the 
Hindu  mind.  She  is  thus  properly  the  wife  of  Brahma. 
At  her  festivals,  as  goddess  of  learning,  all  books, 
pens,  and  other  implements  of  study,  are  gathered  in 
the  school-houses  in  India,  and  strewn  with  white 
flowers  and  barley-blades ;  and  in  the  prayer  her 
name  is  coupled  with  the  Vedas  and  all  the  sacred 
writings,  and  her  love  invoked,  as  one  with  that  of 
Brahma,  "the  great  Father  of  all."1  "Sarasvati," 
says  the  Rig  Veda,  "enlightens  all  intellects."  "The 
gods  made  Ila  the  instructress  of  men."  Vach,  or 
Speech,  is  "the  melodious  Queen  of  the  gods,"  who 
says  :  — 

"  I  myself  declare  this,  which  is  desired  by  gods  and  men." 
"  Every  man  whom  I  love,  I  make  him  terrible.     I  make  him  a 
priest,  a  seer." 

"  I  make  him  wise."  2 

Here  is  Indra's  praise  of  Lakshmi  :  — 

"  Thou  art  mystic  and  spiritual  knowledge.  Thou  art  the  phi- 
losophy of  reasoning,  —  the  three  Vedas. 

"  Thou  art  the  arts  and  sciences,  thou  moral  and  political 
wisdom. 

"  The  worlds  have  been  preserved  and  reanimated  by  thee."  3 

"  Every  book  of  knowledge,"  says  the  Hitopades'a, 
"which  is  known  to  Usanas  or  Vrihaspati,  is  by  na- 
ture implanted  in  the  understanding  of  women."  As 
Durga,  it  is  woman  who  slays  the  Satan  of  the  later 
popular  belief,  and  delivers  mankind  from  the  fear  of 
evil ;  for  which  service  this  goddess  is  adored  by  all 

1  Wilson's  Essays,  II.  190. 

2  Rig-  Veda,  I.  3,  12  ;  I.  31,  11 ;  VIII.  89,  10;  X.  125,  5. 

3  Vishnu  Parana,  I.  ch.  ix. 


228  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

deities  and  saints.1  In  the  myth  of  the  Kena  Upanis- 
had,  it  is  a  woman,  Uma,  who  represents  divine  knowl- 
edge. She  is  a  shining  mediator  between  Brahma 
and  the  gods  :  none  but  she  is  able  to  reveal  to  Indra 
"  who  it  was  that  had  appeared  to  them,  enforcing  their 
adoration,  and  vanished  when  they  sought  to  approach 
too  near."  The  epics  also  describe  Uma  as  one  of  the 
three  divine  daughters  of  the  great  mountain  king, 
Himavat,  all  of  them  renowned  in  the  three  worlds 
for  force  of  contemplation,  for  chastity,  and  for  power 
in  expounding  divine  wisdom.2  And  as  in  the  Rig 
Veda,  at  the  beginning  of  Hindu  religious  develop- 
ment, we  have  Aditi,  "mother  of  the  gods,"  so  in  the 
mystical  Puranas,  at  the  end,  we  have  Durga,  or 
Mahamaya,  defined  as  "  the  eternal  substance  of  the 
world,  soul  of  all  forms,  whom  none  has  power  to 
praise  ;  by  whom  the  universe  is  created,  upheld,  pre- 
served, into  whom  it  is  absorbed  at  last."8 

After  eighteen  centuries  of  Christianity,  the  task  of 
„,  .  .   .     emancipating  woman  from   legal  incapacities 

Christianity  r  o  or 

and  Hea-  yet  remains  to  be  accomplished.  Such  prog- 
ress as  has  actually  been  made  in  this  direction 
cannot  be  laid  to  the  sole  account  of  any  distinctive  re- 
ligion. Physical  and  social  science,  intellectual  culture, 
and  practical  necessity  have  had  more  to  do  with  it  than 
either  Christian  belief  or  that  spirit  of  brotherhood 
which  Christianity  has  held  to  be  its  own  peculiar 
grace.  The  history  of  its  churches  as  a  whole  affords 
no  ground  for  according  them  superiority,  in  this  form 
of  justice,  to  the  heathen  world.  The  Hindu  law  for- 
bade woman  to  read  the  Vedas,  or  to  officiate  at  holy 
rites.       Christian   councils    and    Popes,    echoing   the 

1  Puranas,  quoted  in  Muir,  Sanskrit  Texts,  IV.  371. 

2  See  texts  in  Muir,  IV.  367.  s  Ibid.,  371 ;  Wilson's  Essays,  I.  247. 


WOMAN. 


229 


great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  have  interdicted  her 
not  only  from  assumption  of  the  priesthood,  but  from 
speaking  in  religious  assemblies,  or  administering  the 
rite  of  baptism.1  Christian  legislation  has  been  in 
many  points  even  more  unjust  to  her  than  Manu.  A 
law  of  Justinian  concerning  deaconesses  makes  death 
the  penalty  for  their  marrying.  What  is  there  in  the 
Hindu  code  harsher  towards  females  than  their  exclu- 
sion by  English  common  law  from  "benefit  of  clergy," 
so  that  they  were  put  to  death  for  crimes  which  a 
clergyman  could  commit  with  impunity,  and  for  which 
a  man  was  simply  branded?2  Have  Hindu  laws  pre- 
scribed the  self-burning  of  widows?  For  eighteen 
hundred  years  Christian  statutes  burned  women  at 
the  stake,  and  for  heresy  mainly.  Is  the  absolute 
authority  of  husband  and  father  the  oldest  despot- 
ism? It  survives  still  in  the  law  of  England,  which 
"vests  parental  rights  in  the  father  alone,  to  the 
entire  exclusion  of  the  mother ; "  giving  him  power 
not  only  to  remove  the  children  from  her  during  his 
life,  but  to  appoint  a  guardian  with  similar  power  over 
them  after  his  death.3  What  could  be  worse  than  the 
European  principle  of  ft  feme  covert,"  the  absorption  of 
her  legal  existence  during  marriage  into  that  of  her 
husband,  still  described  in  the  very  language  of  the 
Hindu  Law  ?  Or  what  shall  we  say  of  the  facts  that 
the  Ecclesiastical  or  Canon  Law  has  been  the  source 
of  woman's  severest  disabilities ;  and  that  it  is  only  in 
so  far  as  the  secular  principle  has  prevailed  over  the 
ecclesiastical  that  any  progress  has  been  made  in  re- 

1  Laodicea ;  Carthage;  Autun  (670  A.c);  Aix-la-Chapelle  (816);  Paris  (824).  The 
Synod  of  Orange  (441)  forbids  the  ordination  of  deaconesses.  See  Ludlow,  Woman's 
Work  in  the  Church,  p.  65. 

2  Wendell's  Blackstone,  I.  445,  u. 

8  Westminster  Review  for  Jan.  1872,  p.  30. 


23O  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

moving  them  P1  The  persecution  of  witches  in  modern 
Europe  has  no  parallel  in  Hindu  or  any  other  barbar- 
ism. Many  of  the  legal  disqualifications  of  woman, 
which  have  descended  from  feudalism,  make  her  per- 
petual wardship  among  the  heathen  appear  almost 
respectable  in  comparison. 

And  on  the  other  hand,  as  we  have  seen,  an  instinc- 
Treatmem    tive  respect  for  the  sex  was  not  wanting  to  the 

ofwoman  pre_ChriSf-}an  WOrld.  It  was  the  command- 
by  different    tr 

religions,  ment  of  nature .  Its  roots  were  in  religion, 
in  moral  appreciation,  in  generosity  and  in  love. 
Judaism  and  Christianity  helped  it  onward,  by  their 
stern  protest  against  polygamy  and  sensuality,  and  by 
sublime  ideals  of  purity  and  beneficence.  But  the 
Church,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  anticipated  by 
a  noble  movement  of  Roman  law,  which  steadily 
transformed  the  status  of  woman  from  almost  total 
bondage  into  freedom  and  equality  in  respect  of  con- 
jugal, marital,  and  proprietary  rights.  It  has  been 
said  with  truth  that  Roman  jurisprudence  gave  her 
"  a  place  far  more  elevated  than  that  since  assigned  to 
her  by  Christian  governments." 2  The  culmination 
of  liberal  tendencies  under  Christian  emperors,  as 
especially  shown  in  the  laws  of  Constantine  in  her 
favor,  was  the  issue  of  a  secular  movement,  which 
had  been  penetrating  for  centuries  through  the  whole 
mass  of  Roman  legislation.  Under  Christianity  itself, 
the  progress  was  slow  :  later  emperors  undid  the  work 
of  earlier  ones  ;  and  it  is  admitted  even  by  Troplong 
that  this  religion  "  did  not  take  full  possession  of  civil 
society  till  after  the  older  races  had  been  rejuvenated 

1  See  Blackstcme,  I.  445  ;  also  Maine's  A?icient  Law,  p.  153. 

2  Weshn.  Rev-  for  Oct.  1856. 


WOMAN.  231 

by  fresh  life  infused  from  new  sources.1  Without  dis- 
paraging the  services  of  the  Church,  we  naust  render 
justice  to  that  far  greater  help  towards  the  ^emancipa- 
tion of  woman  which  came  from  a  different  quarter. 
I  mean  those  Teutonic  tribes,  to  whom  a  queen  was 
as  good  as  a  king,  and  who  gave  Rome  an  empress.2 
I  mean  those  free  "barbarians,"  who  brought  with 
them  a  perfect  equality  of  sex  in  all  the  domestic  and 
social  relations ;  with  whom  the  wife  was  accustomed 
not  to  yield  up  a  dowry,  but  to  receive  one  from  the 
husband,  while  each  formally  endowed  the  other  with 
spear,  an$  steed,  and  sword,  in  token  of  common 
public  duties  and  claims  ;  whose  women  were  "  fenced 
with  chastity,"  and  "guardians  of  their  own  children  ;  " 
who  held  that  "  somewhat  of  sanctity  and  prescience 
was  inherent  in  the  female  sex  ;"3  who  entered  neither 
on  peace  nor  on  war  without  consulting  the  priestess 
as  an  oracle  ;  whose  mythology  conceived  destiny  in 
female  forms,  whether  as  Valkyriur  or  Nornir,  at  the 
tree  of  life  or  on  the  field  of  death  ;  and  whose  oldest 
poem,  the  Voluspa,  was  ascribed  to  a  woman,  repre- 
sented as  a  divinity  who  unveils  the  past  and  future  to 
gods  and  men. 

But  behind  Roman,  Christian,  and  Teutonic  helpers, 
rise  the  grand  Greek  ideals  of  Wisdom  and  Greece  and 
Maternity,  Athena  and  Demeter,  with  their  Esypt 
consecration  not  of  thought  only,  but  of  earth  and  air. 
The  inviolability  of  the  family  was  enthroned  in  Hera. 
The  awe  of  all  deities  beheld  Hestia,  the  earth,  as 
their  common  mother,  and  the  witness  of  their  most 
sacred  vows.     And  even  behind  these   stands  Egyp- 

1  Troplong,  Influence  du  Christianisme,  p.  218. 

8  Victoria,  "  Mother  of  Camps."    See  Thierry,  Tableau  de  I 'Empire  Remain,  p.  189. 

3  See  Tacitus,  De  Mor.  Germ.,  c.  18,  19,  8;  Hist.,  IV.  61. 


232  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

tian  Isis,  Goddess  Mother,  crowned  with  her  thrones, 
shielding  Osiris  with  her  outspread  wings,  co-equal 
ruler  of  the  land  during  his  calamity,  and  its  saviour 
through  her  own  distress ;  tender  seeker  of  the  lost 
divinity  of  love  and  truth  ;  his  deliverer  from  bonds, 
and  his  avenger  on  the  powers  of  evil ;  commending 
even  the  brute  creatures  to  human  gratitude  for  their 
sympathy  and  help  in  her  beneficent  work.  Haw 
beautiful  the  myth  ! l  Diodorus  gives  us  an  inscrip- 
tion in  which  she  says  what  she  well  might  say, 
"'  What  I  have  decreed,  none  can  annul."  And 
Apuleius  calls  her  "  Nature,  beginning,  of  ages, 
parent  of  all."2 

These  natural  instincts  spoke  clearly  in  the  Far 
East  also.  There  was  faith  in  maternity  as  the 
root  of  redemption,  long  before  men  bowed 
at  the  shrine  of  a  Catholic  "  Mother  of  God."  When 
Dante  and  Dominic  beheld  the  mysteries  of  hell  and 
heaven  through  faith  in  the  sanctity  of  Womanhood, 
they  but  made  fresh  confession  of  a  spiritual  need, 
which  in  other  forms  is  as  surely  represented  in  the 
old  Hindu  Epic,  Drama,  and  Sacred  Hymn.  And 
when  free  opportunity  and  becoming  culture  shall 
have  been  at  last  achieved  for  women,  and  the  old 
contempt  for  their  intellectual  capacities  shall  have 
everywhere  gone  to  its  place,  it  will  be  better  under- 
stood that  the  recognition  has  been  but  clearer  vision 
of  what  could  not  anywhere  have  been  wholly  hid. 
Recent  movements  in  India  for  the  better  education  of 
women,  and  the  recent  mission  (1870)  of  the  leader 
of  Hindu  Theism  to  England,  in  the  interest  of  their 
deliverance  from  the  marital,  social,  and  ecclesiastical 

1  See  Plutarch's  Isis  and  Osiris. 

2  Diod.,  I.  27 ;  Apuleius,  Metamorph. 


WOMAN.  233 

oppressions  of  ages,  are  but  the  springing  of  these 
ancient  waters  afresh  with  renewed  power.  Native 
Hindu  women  are  being  educated  for  the  medical 
profession,  without  distinction  of  caste.  Some  have 
already  entered  on  regular  practice.1  "In  north- 
western India,"  we  are  told,  "the  pandits  are  always 
ready  to  do  their  very  best  to  promote  the  cause  of 
female  education."  2  Miss  Carpenter,  in  her  recent 
noble  mission  for  this  purpose,  found  the  intelligent 
Hindus  so  earnest  and  so  wise  in  their  interest  in  it, 
that  she  was  fain,  as  she  tells  us,  to  follow  their  lead- 
ing, convinced  that  the  best  way  for  them  was  to 
emancipate   themselves.3 

And  our  hopes  are  strengthened,  when  we  remem- 
ber that  this  contemplative  race  would  naturally  be 
disposed  to  regard  intelligence,  by  whomsoever  mani- 
fested, as  worthy  of  respect;  and  that  even  the  des- 
potism of  caste  could  not  wholly  exclude  the  special 
gifts  of  woman  from  hospitality  and  honor,  with  a 
people  whom  it  is  but  just  to  call  the  Brain  of  the 
East.4 

1  At  the  school  of  Dr.  Corbyn  in  Bareilly,  where  twenty-eight  native  girls  are  now 
studying.     See  Victoria  Magazine,  April,  1S71. 

2  Prichard,  Administr.  of  India,  II.  73. 

3  Six  Months  in  India,  I.  78,  80. 

4  The  position  of  Woman  in  Buddhism  will  be  noticed  in  the  sections  relating  to  that 
religion 


VII. 
SOCIAL   FORMS   AND   FORCES. 


SOCIAL   FORMS   AND   FORCES. 


TT  has  been  usual  to  ascribe  the  social  system  of  the 
Hindus  to  the  deliberate  artifices  of  a  origin  of 
priesthood.  But  the  germs  of  caste  are  in  the  castes- 
instinctive,  not  in  the  self-conscious  age  of  man.  Nor 
can  we  now  accept  Niebuhr's  sweeping  statement  that 
"  castes  are  in  all  cases  the  consequence  of  foreign 
conquests."  Neither  theory  meets  the  all-important 
question  :  Of  what  social  needs  and  aspirations  is  a 
system  so  general  in  the  early  history  of  nations  the 
natural  expression? 

The  religious  instincts  are  as  old  as  the  social.  The 
savage  makes  a  fetich  of  the  wooden  sticks  out  The  priestly 
of  which  he  churns  his  fire  ;  and  the  medicine-  caste- 
man  listens  with  awe  to  the  din  of  his  own  rattle  or 
drum.  The  sorcerer  makes  an  image  of  a  diseased 
person  out  of  earth  or  grass,  and,  confounding  his  own 
processes  with  the  life  of  the  individual  represented, 
ascribes  to  this  work  of  his  own  hands  a  magical 
power  over  the  disease.  This  is  the  rude  beginning 
of  religious  mysticism  ;  and  it  is  but  a  more  refined 
form  of  the  same  "  superstition,"  when  the  crucifix  is 
believed  to  possess  a  divine  efficacy  in  removing  the 
crosses  of  life  and  the  anguish  of  death  from  the 
human  being  in  whose  likeness  it  is  made.     But  in 


238  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

neither  case  does  the  word  M  superstition  "  express  the 
whole  truth.  To  the  primitive  tribes  nature  is  not 
merely  hunting-ground  and  pasture,  but  mysterious 
living  Presence  of  invisible  powers.  Endless  motion 
and  endless  rest,  brooding  stillness,  inexplicable  sounds, 
stir  strange  yearning  and  awe  in  these  children  of  the 
open  eye  and  ear.  Who  shall  solve  these  mysteries, 
and  draw  the  secret  runes  of  life  and  death  out  of  the 
night  and  the  day?  He  whose  organization  is  most  sen- 
sitive to  the  contact  of  these  subtle  forces  shall  be  holy 
and  dear  to  men.  The  natural  seer  is  the  first  recog- 
nized ruler.  The  grateful  people  will  live  to  honor,  die 
to  appease  him.  They  will  stand  afar  off,  while  he 
talks  with  gods  and  spirits  for  their  sake.  Moses  shall 
go  in  among  the  clouds  and  lightnings  for  us.  Vasish- 
tha  shall  pray  for  us  to  Indra,  the  storm-ruler,  to  an- 
nihilate our  foes.  This  interpreter  of  Nature  fulfils  all 
ideal  functions,  except  that  of  military  chief  or  king. 
He  is  magician,  astrologer,  physician,  philosopher, 
poet,  moral  leader.  And  he  is  eminently  sincere. 
It  is  his  faith  and  feeling  that  make  him  what  he  is, 
and  give  him  his  power  over  the  people.  He  is  meet- 
ing their  deepest  needs  as  well  as  his  own ;  being 
more  plainly  impressible  than  others  by  those  powers 
which  all  confess.  As  yet  there  is  no  priestcraft  here. 
And  as  nature  is  felt  but  as  a  chaos  of  undistinguished 
powers,  so  society  has  reached  nothing  like  a  hier- 
archy of  classes.  A  division  of  labor  is  in  fact  just 
beginning  in  this  instinctive  respect  for  the  inspired, 
or  possessed  person. 

Such  is  the  Aryan  purohita  ;  such  the  Hebrew  ndbi 
or  ro'eh.1  Both  are  properly  natural  seers.  The  name 
purohita,  meaning  one  who  has  charge?  shows  how 

1  1  Sam.  ix.  9 ;  Judges  xvii.  *  Lassen,  I.  795. 


THE    CASTES.  239 

closely  the  sentiment  we  have  described  allied  itself 
with  the  performance  of  religious  rites.  As  social 
relations  are  developed,  this  class  become  not  only 
psalmists  and  singers,  but  teachers  and  counsellors  of 
the  king.1  They  direct  his  policy,  simply  because 
they  are  his  wisest  men.  "That  king  withstands  his 
enemies,"  says  the  Rig  Veda,  "  who  honors  a  purohita  ; 
and  the  people  bow  before  him  of  their  own  accord."2 
The  seer  teaches  his  wisdom  to  his  children,  who 
follow  in  his  honored  paths.  They  come  to  have 
esoteric  mysteries ;  but  it  is  simply  because  their  re- 
ligious disciplines  as  well  as  natural  susceptibilities 
have  put  them  in  possession  of  physical  or  psycholog- 
ical knowledge  which  the  multitude  can  receive  only 
in  parables. 

By  and  by  the  seers  become  an  organization.  These 
hereditary  disciplines  draw  them  into  closer  TheBrah- 
combination  for  such  purposes  as  grow  naturally  raans- 
out  of  their  public  functions ;  and  we  have  Levites, 
Magi,  Brahmans.  The  Hindu  purohitas,  thus  trans- 
formed, are  bound  into  char  anas  and  -parishads,  schools 
and  associations  for  definite  objects,  such  as  the  guar- 
dianship of  formulas  and  rites,  or  the  study  of  Vedic 
hymns.  They  are  divided  into  forty-nine  gotras,  or 
families,  who  trace  their  descent  from  the  "  seven  holy 
rishis,"  and  the  mythical  or  other  saints  who  figure  in 
their  traditions  ;  and  these  gotras  are  governed  by  strict 
religious  and  social  regulations.  Gradually  the  text 
becomes  more  precious  than  the  soul  which  created  it ; 
and  at  last  its  guardian  is  holier  even  than  itself. 
The  freedom  and  ardor  of  the  Veda  hymn  are  sup- 
planted by  formulas  of  doctrine,  the  oracles  of  Nature 

1  2  Sara.  xxiv.  11. 

2  R.  V.,  IV.  5,  7,  10.     See  Roth,  io  Zeitschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  I.  So. 


24O  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

by  ritual  law.  A  corporate  authority  grows  up,  by 
force  of  intellectual  supremacy  and  in  the  name  of 
religion,  which  favorable  circumstances  develop  into 
the  Brahman  caste. 

The  heroic  life  of  the  Greek  cantons  in  the  older 
Aryan  spirit  forbade  this  distinct  separation  of  a  relig- 
ious class  from  the  rest  of  the  community.1  But  the 
contemplative  Hindus,  passive,  fatalistic,  yearning 
in  the  lassitude  of  tropical  life  for  self-surrender  to 
ideal  powers,  gave  full  sweep  to  the  caste  tendency, 
and  became  its  typical  representatives. 

Such,  substantially,  is  the  history  of  priesthood  in 
The  priest-  a^  times.  It  begins  in  the  natural  gravitation 
hood.  0f  power  to  the  wisest  and  friendliest  men. 
In  the  Middle  Ages,  a  Martin,  an  Ambrose,  or  a 
Gregory,  standing  for  the  weak  and  oppressed  in  the 
name  of  God,  made  iron  knees  and  fierce  unshorn 
heads  bow  down,  and  do  penance  for  every  act  of 
injustice.  But  where  the  prophet  stood  in  the  morn- 
ing of  a  religion,  by  and  by  stands  the  priest,  its 
functionary,  inheriting  his  honors,  but  not  his  spirit. 
It  is  the  destiny  of  every  organized  religion.  In  the 
Eastern  races  the  degeneration  was  not  arrested  by 
science  or  political  liberty.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  escaped  that  sort  of  ecclesiastical  Jesuitism  which 
follows  the  deliberate  refusal  to  recognize  what  these 
teachers  bring.  For  the  impulses  of  nature  wrought 
through  the  religion,  not  against  it:  a  real  faith,  both 
in  priests  and  people,  made  devotees  and  martyrs  after 
its  own  kind. 

The  other  castes  likewise  begin    in    certain    rude 

1  The  pries:  and  king  were  there  one  and  the  same  person  ;  and,  both  in  Hellenic  and 
Roman  civilization,  the  political  element  gradually  absorbed  the  religious  into  its  own  cur- 
rent, shaping  it  to  practical  and  general  uses. 


THE    CASTES. 


24I 


forms  of  social    need.     A    portion    of  the    tribe    be- 
comes agricultural.     It  must  be  defended  from   The  other 
sudden  incursions,  in  its  quiet  settlement  along   castes- 
the  Ganges  or  Nile.      The    Soldier,    as    more   inde- 
pendent, and  as  holding  more  firmly  to  the  traditions 
of  the  free  roving  life,  will  stand  higher  in  the  social 
scale  than  the  Husbandman.     His  function  is  an  in- 
dispensable one  :  he  assumes,  with  this  social  pre-emi- 
nence, the  special  burden  of  public  defence.     He  rules 
not  by  the  might  of   the    strongest,    so  much  as  by 
the  need  of  the  strongest.     Contempt  of  labor  in  the 
ancient  communities  was  comparative,  not    absolute. 
In   all   of  them  there  are   recognitions  of  its  worth, 
such  as   Hesiod's  "  Works  and  Days,"  or  the  lives  of 
early  Romans,  like  Cincinnatus  and  Cato.     But  the 
labors  of  the  priest  and  soldier  are  more  prized  than 
those  of  artisans  or  tillers  of  the  earth.     The  pursuits 
of  settled  life  begin  to  exist,  on  mere  sufferance  by  the 
armed  nomad ;  and  they  endure  only  so  far  as  pro- 
tected by  the  military  class.     Again,  the  handicrafts, 
as  they  arise,   are    subservient  to  the   wants  of   the 
agriculturist ;  and  so  we  have  the  natural  order  of  the 
castes.      Veneration  for  parental  disciplines  and  ex- 
ample,  and   the  need   of   an    exact   transmission    of 
methods,  render  all  employments  hereditary.     Force 
of  fellowship,  tradition,   custom,  accomplish  the  rest. 
Thus  society  becomes  organized  by  the  laws  of  pre- 
cedence in  public  service.     In  its  origin  the  baleful 
caste  system,  which  is  not  confined  to  Egypt  and  India, 
but  in   some   form  has   appeared   in  most  races   at  a 
certain  stage  of  development,  was  simply  an  instinc- 
tive effort  for  the  Organization  of  Labor.1 

1  Quinet  (Genie  des  Religions)   has  traced  a  striking  parallel  between  Hindu  castes 
and  the  European  classes  in  the  Middle  Ages,  another  epoch  of  social  reconstruction. 

16 


242  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

Plato  himself,  in  his  ideal  Republic,  supposes  classes 
to  have  originated  in  a  natural  division  of  labor,  and 
justice  to  be  that  adherence  of  each  to  its  own  function 
which  the  general  good  requires.  I  cannot  doubt  that 
Plato's  "justice"  is  the  philosophical  statement  of  a 
natural  ideal,  which  had  much  to  do  with  constructing 
the  earlier  forms  of  society. 

An  old  Hindu  myth  gives  the  following  solution  of 
TT.  J  .,     our  question.       Brahma   created   a   son,  and, 

Hindu  ideas  x 

oftheori-  calling  him  Brahman,  bade  him  study  and 
5S*  teach  the  Veda.  But,  fearing  the  attacks  of 
wild  beasts,  he  prayed  for  help ;  and  a  second  son 
was  created,  named  Kshatriya,  or  warrior,  to  protect 
him.  But,  employed  as  he  was  in  defence,  he  could 
not  provide  the  necessaries  of  life ;  and  so  a  third 
son,  Vaisya,  was  sent  to  till  the  soil ;  and  as,  once 
more,  he  could  not  make  the  tools,  and  do  the  other 
needful  service,  a  youth  called  Sudra  succeeded,  and 
all  dwelt  together,  serving  Brahma.1  The  Brihad 
Upanishad  says  that  "Brahma  is  in  all  the  castes,  in 
the  form  of  each."  The  law  books  and  the  older 
mythologists  deprecate  the  idea  of  a  violent  origin  of 
the  system,  and  affirm  that  all  the  castes  descend  from 
One  God  ;  the  priest  proceeding  from  Brahma's  head, 
the  soldier  from  his  arm,  the  husbandman  from  his 
leg,  the  s'udra  from  his  foot.  Buddhist  accounts, 
which  describe  castes  as  the  consequence  of  social 
degeneracy,  none  the  less  represent  them  as  having 
been  spontaneous  and  elective.  A  discourse  attributed 
to  Buddha  himself  contains  a  legend  of  the  following 
purport :  — 

1  Creuzer,  Relig.  de  VAntiquitt,  I.  227. 

-  Manu,  I.  31 ;  Y&jtiavalkya,  III.  126.  A  passage  to  similar  effect  in  the  Rig  Veda 
(X.  go,  6,  7)  is  believed  to  be  of  later  origin  than  the  rest     Miiller's  Chips,  II.  30S. 


THE    CASTES.  243 

When  outrages  on  society  began,  a  ruler  was  elected  to  pre- 
serve order,  who  received  for  such  service  a  portion  of  the  produce. 
He  was  called  Khattiyo,  or  Kshatrya,  as  owner  of  lands,  and  after- 
wards Raja,  as  rendering  mankind  happy.  But  his  race  was  origi- 
nally of  the  same  stock  with  the  people,  and  of  perfect  equality  with 
them.  Then,  by  reason  of  the  increase  of  crimes,  the  people  ap- 
pointed from  among  themselves  Bahmanas,  or  suppressors  of  vice 
and  awarders  of  punishment,  —  a  class  which  afterwards  became  fond 
of  living  in  huts  in  the  wilderness  ;  and  these  were  the  ancestors 
of  the  Brahmans,  who  also  were  therefore  originally  of  the  com- 
mon stock.  Other  persons,  who  distinguished  themselves  as  ar- 
tificers, were  called  wessa,  or  Vaisya,  while  others,  addicted  to 
hunting  (ludda),  became  stidras ;  but  all  these  classes  were  at  first 
equal  with  the  rest  of  mankind.  Finally,  from  out  of  all  these 
classes  came  persons  who  despised  their  own  castes,  left  their  habi- 
tations, and  led  wandering  lives,  saying,  "  I  will  become  samana, 
ascetic,  or  priest."  Thus  the  sacerdotal  class,  being  formed  from 
all  the  rest,  does  not  properly  constitute  a  caste.1 

Finally,  the  Bhagavadgita,  giving  the  philosophy  of 
Brahmanism  on  the  subject,  refers  these  subordinations 
to  differences  of  natural  disposition  (guna)  among 
men ;  in  other  words,  to  moral  gravitation.2  This 
resembles  the  defences  of  slavery  offered  by  the  later 
Greeks  and  modern  Americans ;  and  serves,  like 
these,  to  demonstrate  that  the  worst  institutions  are 
compelled  to  do  homage  to  a  natural  sense  of  right, 
and  must  defend  themselves  by  the  pretence  of  justice. 
But  the  common  idea  which  all  these  Hindu  authori- 
ties suggest  —  the  intimation  of  mythologist,  lawgiver, 
and  theorist  alike  —  is  that  castes  were,  in  their  origin, 
spontaneities  of  social  growth,  pursuing,  both  by  di- 
vine order  and  human  consent,  the  common  good  of 
society.  Nor  did  the  common  sense  and  humanity 
of  the  people  fail  to  recognize  that  the  separation  of 

1  This  legend,  as  translated  by  Tumour,  is  given  in  full  in  Colonel  Sykes's  Notes 
on  Ancient  India  (Journal  of  Roy.  As.  Sac,  vol.  vi.). 

2  So  the  Vishnu  and  Vayu  PurSnas. 


244  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

the  classes  by  absolute  difference  of  origin  was  it- 
self a  delusion,  and  refuse  it  place  in  their  ideal  of 
history.1 

As  far  as  regards  the  three  upper  castes  in  India, 
The  lowest  tne  explanation  now  given  seems  adequate. 
castes.  But  jt  is  t0  be  noted  that  the  lowest  caste  was 
black ;  that  its  name  Sudra  is  not  Sanskrit,  but  desig- 
nated an  indigenous  tribe  ;  and  that  its  caste  degrada- 
tion would  thus  appear  to  be  the  result  of  conquest  by 
the  invading  Aryans.2 

There  are  many  outcast  classes,  even  lower  than  the 
Sudra.  These  are  the  product  of  ''mixed  marriages," 
from  which,  as  confusion  of  the  castes,  according  to 
the  law,  all  possible  evils  proceed.3  Doubtless  Miche- 
let's  opinion,  that  the  whole  relation  of  the  caste  system 
to  the  aborigines  was  but  an  indispensable  policy  of 
self-protection  on  the  part  of  the  Aryan  tribes  against 
absorption  into  degraded  races,  is  entitled  to  some 
regard  in  explaining  this  intense  hatred  of  mixed 
marriages,  which  we  find  throughout  the  Brahmanical 
legislation.4  Yet  there  are  also  ignoble  sources  of  low- 
caste  miseries,  and  it  is  plain  that  priestcraft  has  had 
its  share  in  elaborating  a  system  which  began  in  sim- 
ple instincts  of  mutual  help. 

1  Muir  has  fully  established  the  truth  of  his  statement  (Sansk.  Texts,  I.  160)  that  "the 
separate  origination  of  the  four  castes  is  far  from  being  an  article  of  belief  universally 
received  by  Indian  antiquity."  Abundant  passages  in  the  Ramayana  describe  the  earliest 
or  Krita  age  of  man,  in  which  "  righteousness  was  supreme,  '  when  "  the  soul  of  all  beings 
was  white  ;  "  when  "  men  were  alike  in  trust,  knowledge,  and  observance  ;  "  when  "  the 
castes  were  devoted  to  one  deity,  used  one  formula,  rule,  and  rite,  and  practised  one  duty." 
And  the  Bhagavata  Purana  says  (IX.  14,  18)  there  was  formerly  but  one  Veda,  essence  of 
speech,  one  God,  md  one  caste,  the  triple  Veda  entering  in  the  Treta,  or  later  and  degen- 
erate age. 

2  Unless  the  Aryan  occupation  was,  as  Maine  believes,  a  colonization  rather  than  a 
conquest.  The  Rig  Veda  calls  the  black  skin  the  "hated  of  Indra""  (IX.  73,  5).  Varna, 
or  caste,  may  mean  color ;  and  the  Mahabharata  carries  out  the  idea,  representing 
Brahma  as  having  created  the  Brahman  white,  the  Kshatriya  red,  the  Vais'ya  yellow,  and 
the  Sudra  black.     Weber,  Vorlesungen,  p.  18 ;  Duncker,  II.  12,  55  ;  Lassen,  I.  799. 

3  Manu,  VIII.  353  ;  X.  45.  *  Bible  de  V  Humaniti,  p.  40. 


THE    CASTES.  245 

The  Brahmans  must  have  owed  their  supremacy 
to  other  sources  than  physical  force.     In  mod-  origin  of 
ern  Kashmir  and  the  Mahratta  country  they  Brfhm^ni- 

J  •>      cal  author- 

Still  rule  by  the   brain   and    the    pen.1      The   fry. 

Hindu  has  always  believed  that  his  chief  power 
lay  in  blessing  and  cursing.  According  to  Manu, 
"  Speech  is  the  weapon  by  which  they  destroy  their 
foes."2  The  Ramayana  make6  the  priest  Vasishtha 
overcome  the  Kshatriya  Vis'vamitra  by  the  miraculous 
power  of  his  staff.  In  the  Rig  Veda,  both  these 
saints,  who  became  for  later  times  representatives  of 
rival  castes,  are  alike  puro/u'tas ;  and  the  whole  third 
book  is  ascribed  to  Visvamitra.  No  contest  of  classes 
had  then  arisen,  and  the  poet's  inspiration  was  honored 
without  regard  to  the  question  whether  he  was  soldier 
or  priest.3  Even  were  it  probable  that  any  such  inter- 
necine conflict  between  the  two  orders  as  that  described 
by  the  poets  in  the  myth  of  Paras'urama,  which  ends 
in  the  "extermination"  of  the  Kshatriyas,  ever  really 
occurred,  it  is  plain  that  nothing  of  the  kind  was  possi- 
ble until  the  caste  system  had  become  fully  organized. 
In  no  case  could  it  have  been  the  primary  source  of 
priestly  supremacy. 

Parasurama  himself,  in  the  legend,  is  a  Kshatriya, 
and  destroys  his  own  caste,  not  merely  in  the  inter- 
est of  Brahmanical  revenge  for  the  murdered  priestly 
tribe  of  Brighu,  but  also  from  motives  of  a  personal 
character,  the  Kshatriyas  having  slain  his  father.  It 
would  seem  from  this  that  the  reference  is  to  a  civil 
war  inside  the  soldier  caste.4 

Lassen  and  Roth,  upon  the  whole,  regard  the  con- 

1  Campbell  on  Indian  Ethnology,  Journal  Bengal  Society,  1866. 

8  Manu,  XI.  33.  »  Burnouf,  Essai  sur  le  Veda. 

*  Wuttke,  Gesc/i.  d.  Heidenth.,  II.  321 ;  Muir,  Sansk.  Texts,  I.  ch.  iii. ;  MahAbh.,  IIL 


246  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

flict  of  Vasishtha  and  Visvamitra  as  a  symbolic  ex- 
pression for  the  victory  of  Brahmanical  organization 
over  the  simpler  life  of  Vedic  times.  Visvamitra,  as 
his  name  indicates,  has  always  represented  the  demo- 
cratic or  popular  element  in  Indian  faith.  And  the 
outcast  races  have  generally  been  associated  with  his 
family.1 

When  this  organization  of  castes  was  effected,  or 
how  far  its  development  ever  proceeded,  is  not  easy  to 
determine.  A  rationalistic  and  democratic  element, 
of  which  distinctive  Buddhism  was  but  a  single  ex- 
pression,  seems  to  have  existed  in  every  epoch  of 
Hindu  thought ;  and  this  must  have  constantly  hin- 
dered the  growth  of  Brahmanical  authority.  The 
progress  of  the  system  must  therefore  have  been  slow. 
A  civil  war  of  so  barbarous  and  destructive  a  charac- 
ter as  the  tale  of  Paras'urama  implies  becomes  ex- 
tremely improbable. 

If,  as  has  been  conjectured,  the  conflict  occurred  in 
later  Buddhist  times,2  it  must  still  have  been  of  a  very 
different  character  from  that  described  in  the  legend ; 
for  the  history  of  Buddhism  gives  no  record  of  such  a 
conflict  in  any  form.  Nor,  as  matter  of  fact,  were  the 
Kshatriyas  "exterminated;"  either  "three  times,"  as 
the  poet  puts  it,  or  even  once.  Their  descendants 
abound  in  Rajputana  and  the  Panjab,  amidst  the  old- 
est seats  of  Hindu  civilization.  In  the  epics  there  are 
still  signs  of  superiority  in  the  soldier  class  :  the  chief- 
tains often  treat  Brahmans  with  contempt,  as  merce- 
nary sacrificers.     At  the  marriage  of  Draupadi,3  the 

1  The  word  vis  means  probably  to  occupy  or  hold  (Greek,  OlKOC ;  Latin,  vicus;  Eng- 
lish, wick),  and  indicates  the  settled  householding  class ;  hence  Vaisyas,  the  agricultural 
caste,  and  probably  Vishnu,  the  preserving  One. 

2  Wheeler's  History  of  India,  II.  64  ;  Campbell,  ut  supra. 

»  Makdbk.,  I. 


THE    CASTES.  247 

Rajahs  are  indignant  at  being  humbled  by  a  Brahman, 
whom  the  maiden  chooses  for  her  husband  in  prefer- 
ence to  all  her  Kshatriya  suitors. 

Manu,  indeed,  believed  to  have  been  himself  a 
Kshatriya,  records  the  names  of  kings,  who  perished 
by  reason  of  not  submitting  to  Brahmanical  divine 
right.  But  this  means  only  that  the  spiritual  arm 
claimed  and  secured  mastery  over  the  temporal,  in 
the  maturity  of  both,  as  it  afterwards  did  in  Chris- 
tendom. 

Like  every  thing  Hindu,  this  worship  of  a  priesthood 
was  hewn  out  of  an  abstract  conception.     With  Hindu 
whatever  base  elements  mingled,  to  whatever  pnesthood- 

o  '  ship  aa 

ends  exploited,  the  theory  was  that  justice  ideal. 
could  be  administered  only  by  just  men,  and  that  pun- 
ishment belonged  only  to  the  pure.1  As  the  Egyptian 
priesthood  represented  the  national  idea  of  absolute 
duty,  and  exhorted  the  king  on  solemn  occasions  to 
the  use  of  his  power  for  the  public  good,2  so  the  Brah- 
man was  held  to  be  an  "  incarnation  of  Dharma,  or 
Sovereign  Right  ;  born  to  promote  justice  and  guard 
the  treasure  of  duties."3  The  king  must  appoint  a 
Brahman  as  chief  of  his  ministers.4  The  Brihad 
declares  justice  created  to  rule  force  (Kshatriya). 
"Through  it  the  weak  shall  overcome  the  strong." 
Therefore  the  Brahman  was  inviolable,  world-maker, 
world-preserver,  venerable  even  to  the  gods.  Hor- 
rible transmigrations  are  the  penalty  for  assaulting 
him,  even  with  a  blade  of  grass,  and  barbarous  pun- 
ishments for  slaying  or  mutilating  him.  The  grains 
of  dust  wet  by  his  blood  are  counted  as  years  in  the 
atonement  of  the   murderer.5     Down  at  his  feet,  and 

1  Manu,  VII.  30;  Yajn.,  I.  354.  a  Diod.  Sicul. 

3  Manu.,  I.  98,  99.  *  Ibid.,  VII.  58,  59. 

6  Ibid.,  IX.  314,  316;  XI.  84;  IV.  166,  168;  Yajn.,  II.  215. 


248  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

ask  forgiveness,  if  you  have  confuted  him  in  logic. 
Let  him  suffer,  and  the  nation  perishes.  The  sea 
fails,  the  fire  goes  out,  the  moon  dwindles,  if  his 
prayers  and  offerings  for  the  people  cease.  He  is  the 
producer,  the  healer,  the  deliverer :  the  world  is  but 
the  outcome  of  the  virtue  of  which  he  is  the  visible 
sign.  He  may  violate  every  rule  of  caste  without  sin, 
to  relieve  himself  from  extremity  of  distress  :  though 
the  king  die  of  hunger,  the  Brahman  shall  not  be 
taxed,  his  contribution  being  already  infinite.  He  is 
venerable  from  his  birth ;  though  a  Brahman  be  but 
ten  years  old,  and  a  Kshatriya  a  hundred,  the  former 
is  the  father,  and  all  things  are  his.1 

To  invest  individuals  or  classes  with  an  exclusive 
its  mean-  divinity  belongs  to  all  forms  of  organized 
jng-  religion  hitherto  prevalent  in  the  world.     And 

it  is  easy  to  show,  in  this  worship  of  the  Brahman 
which  is  i'.s  typical  form,  of  what  folly,  superstition, 
and  despotism  it  is  capable.  But  such  criticism,  how- 
ever just,  does  not  explain  the  facts  of  history.  We 
would  recognize  that  sentiment,  in  itself  eternally 
valid,  which  found  crude  and  blind  expression  in  this 
old  absolutism,  so  as  to  give  it  currency  with  human 
nature.  What  it  aspired  to,  in  its  imperfect  way,  is 
in  fact  achieved  only  through  the  mutual  stimulation 
of  free,  vigorous,  practical  races.  The  question  which 
Brahman  worship  properly  suggests  is  whether  he, 
whom  the  progress  of  civilization  has  shown  to  be 
the  real  goal  of  that  imperfect  groping  and  striving, 
whether  the  true  preserver  of  states  and  sustainer  of 
worlds,  he  whose  conscience  outraged,  whose  service 
stayed  or  suppressed,   is  indeed  the  people's  shame 

1  Manu,  XI.  206;  IX.  316;  X.  103;  II.  135;  I.  100. 


THE    CASTES. 


249 


and  loss, — whether  the  just  citizen,  the  laborer  for 
universal  ideas  and  uses,  has  at  last  adequate  recogni- 
tion and  respect.  Meantime  it  is  well  to  note  how 
strong  an  impulse  to  this  natural  veneration  underlies 
the  most  unpromising  features  of  Hindu  life. 

Brahmanical  absolutism  could  not  have  been  the 
mere  device  of  a  body  of  priests,  imposed  from  with- 
out on  the  religious  sentiment.  Priest  and  people 
were  alike  swayed  by  a  sense  of  the  indispensableness 
of  spiritual  help.  They  comprehend  that  to  bring 
this  is  to  sustain  the  world;  that  social  order,  custom, 
inspiration,  are  derived  from  this  ;  that  the  first  of 
duties  is  to  recognize  him  who  has  this  to  give ;  and 
"that  to  stay  this  product  is  to  deal  destruction  to  the 
people.  Here,  in  the  crude  ore,  is  the  fine  gold  of  an 
eternal  idea,  which  these  latest  ages  are  still  engaged 
in  working  out.  Here  is  at  least  a  sincere  effort  to 
divinize  spiritual  help  ;  and  the  Brahman  himself  was 
substantially  a  believing  servant  of  the  impulse,  even 
while  he  more  or  less  selfishly  directed  it  to  effect  his 
own  supremacy. 

He  wrought  out  the  laws,  under  a  sense  of  inspira- 
tion.    He  bowed  his  own  neck  under  the  yoke 

J  Responsibil- 

which  he  laid  on  the  lower  castes.  This  isityofthe 
certainly  true,  whatever  the  alloy  of  priest-  Brahman- 
craft  in  his  legislation.  The  theory  being  that  primi- 
tive power  belonged  only  to  the  just,  its  organ  must 
first  master  himself.1  As  far  as  the  wretched  Chandala 
lay  beneath  this  incarnate  god,  so  far  the  god  himself 
was  beneath  the  law.  Let  him  violate  its  precepts  or 
disciplines,  he  shall  be  turned  into  a  demon  whose 
food   is    filth,   and  whose   mouth    a   firebrand.2      To 

1  Manu,  VII.  30;  Y&jn.,  I.  354-  a  Manu,  XII.  71. 


25O  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

neglect  them  is  to  make  way  for  his  own  destruction. 
Dante's  Christian  Inferno  is  prefigured  in  these  penal- 
ties of  Brahmanical  sin.  "If,  as  judge,  the  Brahman 
shall  overturn  justice,  it  shall  overturn  him  :  if  he 
extracts  not  the  dart  of  iniquity  from  its  wounds,  he 
shall  himself  be  wounded  thereby."  *  If  he  begs  gifts 
for  a  sacrifice,  and  uses  them  otherwise  than  for  sacri- 
fice, he  shall  become  a  kite  or  a  crow ; 2  if  he  begs 
from  a  low-caste  man,  he  shall  become  an  outcast  in 
the  next  existence ;  and  if  he  marries  a  low-caste 
woman,  he  degrades  his  family  to  her  caste,  and  loses 
his  own.3  For  his  marrying  a  Sudra  woman,  the  law 
declares  there  is  no  expiation.4  Crimes  are  specified 
which  will  change  his  nature  into  that  of  a  Sudra  in 
three  days.5  The  law  forbids  the  king  to  slay  him, 
even  though  convicted  of  all  possible  crimes.6  Yet  it 
also  prescribes  his  banishment  for  capital  offences, 
and  even  declares  it  permissible  to  kill  him,  if  he 
attempts  to  kill."  If  he  steals,  his  fine  is  eight  times 
that  of  a  Sudra  ;  and,  if  he  accepts  stolen  property,  he 
is  punished  as  the  thief.8  Care  is  taken  indeed  that 
he  shall  be  able  to  compound  for  the  severest  penalties, 
by  milder  penance ;  but  the  recognition  of  a  higher 
law  than  his  own  will  is  none  the  less  real,  nor  are  his 
expiations  an  easy  burden.  The  Brahmanical  bed 
was  not  made  of  roses.  The  demands  of  asceticism 
rose  in  proportion  to  one's  elevation  in  caste  life,  and 
the  Sudra  is  a  freeman  by  comparison,  in  the  matter 
of  ceremonial  bonds.9  Whatever  rights  the  Brahman 
possessed  over  the  lives  and  property  of  others,  the 

1  Matm,  VIII.  is,  «.  *  Ibid.,  XI.  24.  25.                       s  Ibid.,  III.  16,  17. 

*  Ibid.,  III.  19.  6  Ibid.,  X.  92.                               6  Ibid.,  VIII.  380. 

»  Ibid.,  VIII.  350.  8  Ibid.,  VIII.  337,  340. 

9  For  some  curious  effects  of  this  fact  on  the  relations  of  the  castes,  see   Ludlow's 
Btitisk  India,  I.  57. 


THE    CASTES.  25 1 

law  insisted  with  energy  that  he  should  subdue  his 
passions,  be  just  and  merciful,  and  return  good  for 
evil,  on  penalty  of  losing  all  the  prerogatives  of  his 
birth.  He  must  not  gamble,  nor  sell  spirituous  liquors, 
nor  indulge  any  sensual  desires.  Nor  must  we  esti- 
mate lightly  the  practical  power  of  these  saving  pro- 
visions, and  of  the  religious  beliefs  from  which  they 
sprung.  Alexander  and  his  followers  found  the  Indian 
Gymnosophists  "blameless,  patient,  wise,  and  just."1 
And  the  Egyptian  priesthood,  under  analogous  disci- 
plines to  the  Hindu,  seem  to  have  won  a  like  reputa- 
tion in  the  ancient  world.  A  very  interesting  little 
tract  was  sent  to  Hodgson,  and  communicated  by  him 
to  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  in  which  the  Buddhist 
author  confutes  the  doctrine  of  the  castes  out  of  the 
month  of  Brahmans  themselves;  proving,  by  a  great 
number  of  examples  drawn  from  their  sacred  writings, 
that  Brahmanism  cannot  be  a  matter  of  birth  nor  race, 
nor  wisdom,  nor  observance  of  rites.  He  shows  that 
many  leading  Brahmanical  authorities  were  from 
low-caste  mothers,  that  many  Sudras  have  become 
Brahmans  by  their  austerities  ;  quotes  Manu  to  the 
effect  that  "bad  actions  will  change  a  Brahman  into 
a  Sudra,  that  virtue  is  better  than  lineage,  and  that 
royalty  without  goodness  is  contemptible  and  worth- 
less ; "  also  the  Mahabharata,  as  saying  that  the  signs 
of  a  true  Brahman  are  the  possession  of  truth,  mercy, 
self-command,  universal  benevolence ;  and  that  origi- 

1  Megasthenes,  for  example  (De  Situ  Orbis,  ch.  xv.),  describes  the  Brahmans  as  frugal 
in  living :  avoiding  animal  food  or  sensual  pleasure  :  intent  on  serious  conversation  with 
such  as  are  willing  to  hear.  And  Scholasticus,  in  the  fifth  century,  says  of  them  :  "  They 
worship  God ;  never  question  Providence  ;  always  in  prayer  turning  towards  the  light, 
wherever  it  may  be  ;  live  on  what  the  earth  spontaneously  brings  forth  ;  delight  in  the  sky 
and  woods,  and  sweet  song  of  the  birds;  sing  hymns  to  God,  and  desire  a  future  life." 
These  philosophers  were  in  fact  the  highest  ideals  of  the  Greeks  in  morality  and  religion. 
See  Marco  Polo,  and  the  Arabian  writers  on  India ;  also  Wuttke,  463,  464. 


252  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

nally  there  was  but  one  caste,  the  four  arising  from 
diversity  of  rites  and  vocations.  "  All  men  born  of 
woman  have  the  same  organs,  and  are  subject  to  the 
same  wants."  ! 

These  considerations  may  show  the  injustice  we 
condition  of  should  do  the  Hindu  caste-system  in  placing 
thesudra.  jt  on  a  m0ral  level  with  modern  slavery. 
The  Sudras  were  indeed  at  the  mercy  of  a  fearful 
system  of  oppression.  Legal  penalties  for  enslaved 
races  were  neither  more  nor  less  barbarous  in  the 
Code  of  Manu  than  in  the  written  and  unwritten 
codes  of  the  old  Slave  States  of  America.  Slitting 
of  tongues,  pouring  hot  oil  into  mouths  and  ears, 
cutting  off  lips  and  branding  foreheads,  are  neces- 
sary adjuncts  of  any  system  which  undertakes  to  make 
any  form  of  slavery  its  corner-stone,  in  old  time  or 
new.  The  thraldom  of  the  Sudra  was  very  distinctly 
stated.  "Though  emancipated,  he  does  not  become 
free,  since  none  can  divest  him  of  a  state  which  is 
natural  to  him."2  He  can  possess  no  property  as 
against  a  Brahman  ; 3  and  must  not  accumulate  wealth, 
lest  he  give  trouble  to  the  superior  race  ! 4  And  a  kind 
of  colorphobia,  too,  certainly  underlay  the  old  bondage 
as  it  did  the  later.  Whether  the  Sanskrit  word  for  caste 
(varna)  really  points  to  the  color  of  the  skin  or  not,  at 
present  a  doubtful  question,6  it  is  certain  that  the  lowest 
caste  was  black,  or  nearly  so.  The  indigenous  races 
of  India,  according  to  good  authority,  are  negrito.6 
As  the  Dasyas  in  the  Veda  are  called  "  black  skins," 
so  the  Aryas  are  the  "white  friends  of  Indra."     It  is 

1  Tr ansae,  of  Roy.  As.  Sac,  III.  p.  :6o. 

2  Manu,  VIII.  414-  3  Ibid.,  VIII-  417-  4  Ibid.,  X.  129. 

6  Muir,  II.  374-413  :  Lassen,  I.  407-409  ;  Duncker,  II.  55.      In  the  Rig  Veda,  varna 
has  the  sense  of  race,  tribe,  says  Schoebel  (Researc/tes,  p.  11). 
8  Campbell  on  Indian  Ethnology,  in  Jour.  Beng.  Soc,  1866. 


MITIGATION   OF   CASTE.  253 

an  old  sin,  this  preying  of  the  fair  skin  on  the  dark ; 
and,  in  the  overbearing  oligarchy  of  British  rule  in 
India,  its  penalties  are  falling  on  the  native  posterity 
of  those  Aryan  oppressors. 

But  there  is  this  difference.  The  Brahman  recog- 
nized a  higher  law  than  his  own  gain.  The  Difference 
modern  slaveholder  made  his  power  his  law.   of  Eastern 

/->,  it  1      caste  and 

Caste,  in  its  general  outlines,  was  an  outgrowth  western 
of  the  social  and  religious  faith  of  the  East :  slavery- 
slaveholding  denied  and  affronted  the  conscience  of 
the  West.  Caste  rested  on  a  belief  in  reciprocal 
duties  that  held  every  member  of  the  system  under 
rigid  responsibilities  and  restraints  :  slaveholding  rested 
on  mere  force  and  fraud,  and  the  belief  in  a  reciprocity 
of  duties  was  exceptional  and  incidental.  Man  escapes 
from  both  systems  not  by  miraculous  intervention  of 
Christianity,  but  by  the  deeper  forces  of  his  own  moral 
and  spiritual  nature.  As  these  have  driven  American 
slavery  to  self-destruction,  so  they  have  in  past  times 
counteracted,  and  continue  to  counteract,  the  worst 
tendencies  of  Hindu  caste. 

The  military  and  mercantile  classes  intervened  be- 
tween the  Brahman  and  the  Sudra ;  and  a  Checks  t0 
series  of  mutual  checks  pervaded  the  system,  oppression 

,  ,     .  .  ...  ,     in  the  caste 

which  graduated  its  tyrannies,  and  mitigated  system. 
their  force.  "The  king  is  formed,"  says  Manu,  R°y^' 
"out  of  the  essence  of  the  eight  guardian  deities, 
and  exercises  their  functions.  He  is  ordained  protector 
of  all  classes  in  the  discharge  of  their  several  duties."1 
In  the  Ramayana,  the  king  of  that  model  Brahmanical 
city,  Ayodhya,  "takes  tribute  of  his  subjects,  not  for 
his  own  use,  but   to  return  it   to  them  with  greater 

1  Manu,  V.  96  ;  VII.  80,  33. 


254  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

beneficence  ;  as  the  Sun  drinks  up  the  ocean,  to  return 
it  to  the  earth  in  vivifying  rain."  J  "  O  Bharata,"  says 
Rama  to  his  brother,  "  the  tears  which  fall  from  those 
who  are  unjustly  condemned  will  destroy  the  children 
and  the  herds  of  him  who  governs  with  partiality."2 
By  the  law  of  Manu,  the  king  is  under  a  responsi- 
bility equivalent  to  his  power.  The  burden  of  inno- 
cent blood  shed  by  the  courts  falls  in  large  measure 
on  him.3  He  is  commanded  to  proceed  mildly  in 
dealing  with  offences :  first  by  gentle  admonition, 
then  by  severe  reproof,  then  by  fines,  then  by  inflic- 
tion of  corporeal  pain  ;  and  to  use  severest  methods 
only  as  a  last  resort.4 

All  persons  are  obliged 5  to  adjust  their  controversies 
according  to  the  particular  laws  of  their  own  order, 
and  by  reference  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the 
interests  under  question  :  kindred,  fellow-artisans,  co- 
habitants of  villages,  may  decide  lawsuits,  and  meet- 
ings for  the  purpose  are  entitled  judicatories.  There 
are  judges  appointed  by  the  king  also  in  these  courts ; 
and  an  appeal  lies  from  these  to  higher  ones,  and 
finally  to  the  king  himself. 

He  is  exhorted  to  mild  and  conciliatory  discourse 
towards  litigants.  The  law  codes  abound  in  injunc- 
tions upon  him  to  adhere  to  justice  by  conscientious 
investigation  of  the  cases  brought  before  his  tribunal. 
He  is  to  appoint  a  counsellor  from  the  priesthood,  who 
shall  check  him  if  he  act  "unjustly,  partially,  or  per- 
versely." And  the  judicial  assemblies  are  subject  to 
the  same  rules.  We  are  reminded  of  the  official  oath 
of  the  Egyptian  judges  not  to   obey  the  king  if  he 

1  Rd.ma.yana,  B.  I.  2  Ibid.,  B.  II. 

s  Manu,  VIII.  18.  *  Ibid.,  VII.  104;  VIII.  129. 

5  These  rules  for  the  administration  of  justice  are  taken  from  Colebrooke's  elaborate 
Digest  of  Hindu  Law.     See  Trans,  of  Roy.  As.  Soc,  vol.  ii.  pp.  174-194. 


MITIGATION    OF    CASTE. 


255 


should  command  them  to  act  unjustly.  By  Hindu 
law,  the  judge  who  sits  silent  and  does  not  deliver  his 
real  opinion  is  deemed  guilty  of  deliberate  falsehood. 
The  unjust  judge  is  to  be  fined  twice  the  penalty  in- 
volved in  the  suit,  and  shall  make  good  the  loss  to  the 
injured  party.  The  king  shall  appoint  for  the  trial 
of  causes  only  persons  who  are  "  gentle  and  tender 
rather  than  austere,  and  who  are  wise,  cheerful,  and 
disinterested." 

The  poetic  ideal  of  Hindu  royalty  is  found  in  Kali- 
dasa's  King  Atithi,  who,  "  even  when  young  on  the 
throne,  was  invincible  through  the  love  of  his  people ; 
who  spoke  no  vain  words,  nor  recalled  what  he  had 
given,  inconsistent  only  in  this,  that,  having  overturned 
enemies,  he  lifted  them  again  from  the  earth  ;  seeking 
only  what  was  practicable,  as  fire  attacks  not  water, 
though  the  wind  is  its  servant'  to  consume  the  forest ; 
amassing  riches,  only  because  gold  gives  power  to 
help  the  unhappy ;  loving  honest  ways  even  in  war ; 
making  travellers  as  safe  as  in  their  own  homes ; 
sending  the  poorest  from  his  presence  enabled  to  be 
generous  to  others,  as  the  clouds  come  back  from  their 
voyages  over  the  sea ;  making  enemies  feel  the  infec- 
tion of  his  virtue."  1 

The  severest  caste-laws  must  have  been  inoperative, 
as  the  numberless  contradictions  and  absurdi-  Looseness 
ties  of  the  code  amply  manifest.  It  is  certain  of  the  laws. 
that  the  cruelties  made  legal  in  Manu  could  never 
have  been  inflicted  by  any  physical  power  which  the 
priesthood  could  have  possessed  ;  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
it  is  matter  of  serious  doubt  whether  this  legislation  ever 
had  very  extended  recognition  in  India.  To  learn  the 
actual  condition  of  things,  we  must  resort  to  other  wit- 

1  Ragkuvansa,  XVII. 


256  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

nesses.  I  have  already  alluded  to  the  testimony  of 
Greeks  who  visited  India  before  the  Christian  era,  to 
the  excellence  of  royal  and  judicial  administration. 
They  report  further  that  the  courts  judged  without 
reference  to  any  written  code  whatever ;  and  such  is 
to  a  great  extent  the  case  at  the  present  time,  local 
usages  taking  the  place  of  positive  written  statutes.1 

Practically,  the  lines  of  caste  were  always  ill— 
interchan  e-  defined,  shifting  like  waves  of  sand  blown  by 
abieness  of  the  winds  of  the  desert ;  a  constant  satire  on  its 
pretensions  to  immobility.  Inter-marriage  has 
always  been  permitted,  and  some  of  the  mixed  classes 
have  been  treated  with  respect.  Colebrooke,  in  a 
valuable  paper  on  the  subject,  has  described  the 
disintegration  of  fixed  orders  in  Hindu  society,  and 
the  breaking  down  of  its  "  impassable  walls  "  of  caste 
by  this  subdivision  into  mixed  classes.  They  were 
"  multiplied  to  endless  variety  "  at  a  very  early  epoch  ; 
so  that  it  seems  hardly  possible  that  the  division  into 
four  distinct  classes  could  have  really  prevailed  in 
India  for  any  great  length  of  time. 

The  higher  castes  could,  in  case  of  necessity, 
assume  the  occupations  of  the  lower ;  and  the  Sudra 
could  not  only  engage  in  trades  belonging  to  the  class 
above  him,  but  even  "gain  exaltation  in  this  world 
and  the  next,  by  performing  certain  lawful  acts  of  the 
twice  born  men."  2  "In  fact  almost  every  occupation, 
though  regularly  the  profession  of  a  particular  class, 
is  open  to  most  other  classes.  The  only  limitation  is 
in  the  exclusive  right  of  the  Brahmans  to  teach  the 
Vedas,  and  perform  religious  ceremonies."3 

1  Maine,  Village  Communities.,  p.  52. 

J  Manu,  X.  81,  96-99,  128  ;  Y&jn-,  III.  35. 

8  Colebrooke,  in  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  v. 


MITIGATION    OF    CASTE.  257 

One  may  often,  we  are  told,1  see  carpenters  of  five 
or  six  different  low  castes  employed  on  the  same  build- 
ing ;  and  the  same  diversity  may  be  observed  among 
the  craftsmen  in  dockyards,  and  on  all  other  great 
works.  Manu's  caste  laws  are  perpetually  violated, 
even  those  to  which  the  severest  penalties  are  attached. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  Bengal  army  has  been  com- 
posed of  high-caste  Hindus,  mostly  Brahmans,  as  the 
Madras  army  is  composed  of  low-caste  men,  and  a 
Brahman  may  even  be  a  private  under  a  low-caste 
officer ;  an  assertion  of  natural  democracy  as  little 
likely  to  be  relished  in  India  as  the  authority  of  a 
negro  general  by  scions  of  first  families  in  America, 
yet  equally  inevitable  in  both  cases.  Men  of  low 
castes  have  been  princes  and  had  Brahmans  in  their 
service.2  "The  President  of  the  Dharmasabha  at 
Calcutta  is  a  Sudra,  while  the  secretary  is  a  Brahman. 
Three-quarters  the  Brahmans  in  Bengal  are  servants."  a 
High-caste  cooks  are  said  to  be  in  great  demand  in 
the  army,  and  in  native  families.  The  rules  of 
Brahmanical  purity  make  it  far  easier  for  the  high- 
caste  man  to  become  servant  to  the  low,  than  the 
reverse.4  And  this  intermixture  of  caste  functions 
has  gone  on  from  very  early  times,  leading  to  an 
elaborate  chapter  of  regulations  in  Manu. 

Every  thing  in  climate  and  ethnic  constitution  tended 
to  favor  this  system  in  India ;  yet  even  there  the  force 
of  justice  in  human  nature  has  been  too  strong  for  it, 
and  shown  a  transforming  energy  that  is  marvellous. 
Such  testimonies  suggest  that  the  resort  to  super- 
naturalism,  either  to  explain  man's  past  or  guarantee 
his  future  progress  out  of  the  barbarism  of  caste  in 

1  Rickards,  India,  I.  32.  *  Allen's  India,  p.  472. 

8  Miiller's  Chips,  II.  350.  4  Ludlow,  I.  57. 

17 


258  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

any  form,  is  wholly  gratuitous.  They  have  thus  a 
bearing  on  the  adequacy  of  Natural  Religion  to  the 
explanation  of  history,  which  makes  them  of  great 
interest  in  the  present  state  of  inquiry  on  that  subject. 
Strong  centrifugal  and  disintegrative  tendencies 
Democratic  have  revealed  themselves  in  the  very  structure 
reactions.  0f  fae  svstem,  affording  ample  proof  that  the 
free  impulses  of  nature  in  which  its  first  foundations 
were  laid  refused  to  yield  either  to  priestcraft  or  social 
pride.  "  Manu's  classification  never  passed  in  its  in- 
tegrity," says  Mr.  Hunter,  "beyond  the  middle  land 
of  India.  On  the  east  where  Lower  Bengal  begins, 
caste,  as  a  fourfold  classification,  ceases.  It  never 
crossed  the  Indus  on  the  west.  Beyond  this  the 
tribes  held  all  men  equal."1  In  Northern  India,  at 
the  present  day,  all  castes  mix  socially  together,  even 
where  separated  by  religious  distinctions,  or  diversity 
of  functions.2  In  the  South,  Sudras  rank  next  to 
Brahmans ;  and  their  name  has  never  had  the  degrad- 
ing sense  which  is  given  it  in  Manu's  Laws.3  In 
truth  the  old  doctrine  of  four  distinct  castes  has  no 
longer  a  semblance  of  validity  anywhere.  The 
ancient  Sudras  and  Vaisyas  are  absorbed  into  the  infi- 
nite diversity  of  mixed  castes,  now  no  longer  treated 
with  contempt.4  So  are  the  old  Dasyus  of  the  Veda. 
Brahman  cultivators  are  numerous  in  Western  India, 
and  in  Oude  outnumber  all  others ;  and  the  chief 
traders,  civil  officers,  and  writers  in  the  Panjab4  are 
descendants  of  the  Kshatriya,  or  soldier  class.  "The 
Vais'ya  caste,"  says  Ludlow,  "has  almost  wholly  dis- 
appeared.    The  Kshatriya  (as  soldier)  exists  perhaps 


1  Annals  of  Rural  Bengal,  pp-  102,  104.  2  Campbell,  p.  136. 

8  See  Monier  Williams's  Lecture  on  the  Study  of  Sanskrit. 
*  Campbell  on  Indian  Ethnology. 


DEMOCRATIC    REACTIONS.  259 

only  among  the  Rajputs  of  the  north-western  frontier : 
the  Sudra,  scarcely  anywhere  but  among  the  Yats  and 
Mahrattas.  Only  the  Brahman  holds  his  ground  ;  and 
beneath  him  a  chain  of  castes,  varying  almost  infinitely 
in  number  according  to  locality,  seldom  less  than 
seventy,  and  averaging  a  hundred.  In  Malabar  are 
enumerated  three  hundred."1  And  of  the  Brahmans 
Wilson  tells  us  that  "  they  have  universally  deviated 
from  their  original  duties  and  habits  ;  "  that  "  as  a  hier- 
archy they  are  null ;  as  a  literary  body,  few,  and  meet 
with  slender  countenance  from  their  countrymen ; " 
that  "  they  have  ceased  to  be  the  advisers  of  the  peo- 
ple ; "  and  that  "  various  sects  have  arisen  which 
denounce  them  as  impostors."2  The  gosains  and 
fakeers  have  succeeded  to  the  old  Brahmanical  sway, 
and  generally  contemn  these  subordinations  of  the 
ancient  system,  which  one  reformer  after  another  has 
assailed,  from  Gotama  Buddha  to  the  present  day. 
The  most  national  religious  festival  in  India,  that  of 
Jagannath  in  Orissa,  has  always  rejected  caste.  "No 
one  in  India,"  says  Max  Miiller,  "  is  ashamed  of  his 
caste ;  and  the  lowest  Pariah  is  as  proud  and  anxious 
to  preserve  his  own  as  the  highest  Brahman.  Sudras 
throw  away  their  cooking  vessels  as  defiled,  if  a  Brah- 
man enters  the  house."  3  Sir  H.  Elliott,  in  his  valuable 
work  upon  the  races  of  North-Western  India,  sup- 
plies conclusive  evidence  on  the  failure  of  caste  to 
maintain  its  principle  of  immobility  in  that  region. 
"The  attempt  of  early  lawgivers  to  divide  society  into 
classes,  which  should  hold  no  communion  with  each 
other,  was  one  which  broke  down  at  an  early  period. 
Even  in  India  '  love  will  be  lord  of  all.'     The  plan  of 

1  British  India,  I.  48 ;  Elliott,  Races  of  N.  W.  India,  I.  p.  166. 

2  Religious  Sects  of  the  Hindus,  1862.  8  Chip,  II.  347- 


26o  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

degrading  the  issue  of  mixed  castes  has  been  highly 
beneficial.  It  is  like  the  disintegration  of  granite  till 
it  forms  fertile  soil.  In  practice,  a  man  who  had  a 
Brahman  or  Rajput  for  father  was  not  likely  to  be 
ashamed  of  it,  or  to  be  looked  down  on  by  his  fellow- 
men  ;  and  the  barriers  of  caste  once  overstepped, 
that  mixture  and  fusion  of  the  people  began  which 
has  gone  on  to  our  day,  and  promises  to  continue  till 
there  shall  be  no  remnant  of  caste  left.  A  laconic 
modern  proverb  in  North  Behar  says,  r Caste  is  rice;' 
i.e.,  matter  of  eating  or  not  eating  with  others,  only. 
It  is  a  hopeful  sign,  presaging,  like  the  Brahmo  Somaj, 
a  new  and  better  order  of  things  in  India."1  One  or 
two  more  witnesses  will  suffice. 

Says  the  author  of  "Rural  Annals  of  Bengal  :" 
"  That  the  time  foretold  in  the  Sanskrit  Book  of  the 
Future,  when  the  Indian  people  shall  be  of  one  caste 
and  form  one  nation,  is  not  far  off,  no  one  who  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  Bengalis  of  the  present  day  can 
doubt.  They  have  about  them  the  capabilities  of  a 
noble  nation."  Finally,  Maine  does  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  caste  is  now  tf  merely  a  name  for  trade  or 
occupation;"2  and  Monier  Williams  asserts  that 
"  however  theoretically  strict,  it  practically  resolves 
itself  into  a  question  of  rupees."3  Caste,  in  Ceylon 
as  well  as  in  India,  is  now  in  fact  a  purely  social  dis- 
tinction, and  disconnected  from  any  sanction  derived 
from  religious  belief.4 

The  Drama  has  given  expression  to  the  democratic 

1  Elliott,  I.  p.  167.  2  Village  Communities,  p.  57. 

3  Lecture  on  the  Study  of  Sanskrit  (1S61).  He  mentions  the  fact  that,  a  few  years 
before,  it  was  decided  at  a  meeting  of  Old  and  New  School  Hindus  in  Calcutta  that  certain 
young  Brahmans,  who  had  lost  caste,  should  be  readmitted  on  paying  a  large  fine  and 
performing  purification. 

4  Tennent,  Christianity  in  India,  p.  91. 


DEMOCRATIC    REACTIONS.  26l 

spirit  in  India,  —  as  it  did  to  the  opening  of  modern 
liberties  in  Europe,  —  by  protest  against  the  Sh0wnin 
pride  of  caste,  which  is  in  fact  but  the  feudal-  Kterature. 
ism  of  the  East.  The  Mrichchikati,1  for  instance, 
describes  the  social  contempt  that  befalls  poverty,  in 
indignant  language,  as  suitable  to  the  Western  as  to 
the  Eastern  world  :  — 

"  This  is  the  curse  of  slavery,  to  be  disbelieved  when  you  speak 
the  truth. 

"  The  poor  man's  truth  is  scorned :  the  wealthy  guests  look  at 
him  with  disdain  ;  he  sneaks  into  a  corner. 

"  Believe  me,  he  who  incurs  the  crime  of  poverty  adds  a  sixth 
sin  to  those  we  term  most  hideous. 

"  Disgrace  is  in  misconduct :  a  worthless  rich  man  is  con- 
temptible." 

The  same  play  brings  out  a  Brahman  thief  who 
uses  his  sacred  thread,  "  that  useful  appendage  to  a 
Brahman,"  to  measure  the  walls  he  would  scale,  and 
to  open  the  doors  he  would  force.  It  ridicules  a 
Brahman  pandit,  "stuffed  with  curds  and  rice,  chant- 
ing a  Veda-Hymn  ;  a  pampered  parrot."  A  king  is, 
in  another  passage,  represented  as  commanding  the 
impalement  of  a  priest.  Again,  the  brother  of  a  slain 
king,  dragged  about  by  a  mob,  is  set  free  by  the  for- 
giveness of  the  subject  he  would  have  put  to  death 
unjustly.  A  slave  is  shown  as  a  model  of  integrity, 
and  made  to  say,  M  Kill  me,  if  you  will :  I  cannot  do 
what  ought  not  to  be  done."  A  chandala,  the  lowest 
of  all  outcasts,  when  ordered  to  execute  a  supposed 
criminal,  replies:  — 

"My  father,  when  about  to  depart  to  heaven,  said  to  me: 
'  Son,  whenever  you  have  a  culprit  to  execute,  proceed  slowly ;  for 
perhaps  some  good  man  may  buy  the  criminal's  liberation  ;  perhaps 

1  Translated  by  Wilson. 


262  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

a  son  may  be  born  to  the  king,  and  a  general  pardon  be  proclaimed ; 
perhaps  an  elephant  may  break  loose,  and  the  prisoner  escape  in 
the  confusion  ;  or  perhaps  a  change  of  rulers  may  take  place,  and 
every  one  in  bondage  may  be  set  free.'  "  ' 

The  lower  castes  have  established  claims  to  respect 
in  other  ways.  In  Ceylon  they  have  been  the  only 
astronomers,  and  amidst  their  astrological  fancies 
attained  a  certain  amount  of  scientific  knowledge, 
calculating  eclipses  and  noting  the  periods  of  the 
stars.2 

It  is  probable  that  the  intercourse  of  the  Aryans  with 

native  tribes  has  helped  to  weaken  and  di sin- 
influence  of  _, 
the  native    tegrate  the  caste  system.       I  he  very  ancient 

mbes"        popular  rites  in  honor  of  serpents,  doubtless  of 

agricultural  origin,  and  celebrated  throughout  India, 

in  which  all  classes  unite,  amidst  holiday  pleasures, 

prove  that  a  democratic  influence  has  proceeded  from 

the    aboriginal    races.      Most    of    these    tribes    have 

always  been   free   from    caste ;    many   have    bravely 

resisted  the   invader    among   their   rocky  fastnesses, 

maintaining    a  heroic  independence.     And,  with    all 

their  barbarism,  many  of  them  have  shown  primitive 

virtues  which  ignore  conventional  distinctions  among 

men.      The    Bheels    are  described  as  "more  honest 

than  the  Aryan  Hindus,"  and  their  women  as  having 

a  higher  position  than  those  of  the  latter  race,   and 

taking  part  actively  in  all  reforms  in  behalf  of  order 

and  industry.3     The  Khonds  believe  that  to  break  an 

oath,  or  repudiate  a  debt,  or  refuse  hospitality,  is  to 

invite  the  wrath  of  the  gods.4     Another  writer  speaks 

of  "  the  kindly  spirit  of  the  Kols  towards  each  other." 

"  The  Kol  girl  is  never  abusive  :  her  vocabulary  is  as 

1  Wilson's  Hindu  Theatre,  vol.  i. 

2  See  Upham's  Sacred  Boohs  of  Ceylon,  Introd.  xiv. 

8  Mrs.  Spier's  India.  4  Lassen,  I.  377,  378. 


DEMOCRATIC    REACTIONS.  263 

free  from  bad  language  of  this  kind  as  a  Bengali's 
is  full  of  it."1  "The  whole  Santhal  village,"  says 
Hunter,  "  has  joys  and  sorrows  in  common.  It  works 
together,  hunts  together,  worships  together,  eats  to- 
gether. No  man  is  allowed  to  make  money  out  of 
a  stranger." 2  In  the  interesting  work  here  quoted, 
the  democratic  "village-system,"  which  extends  over 
a  large  portion  of  India,  is  traced  back  to  the  aborigi- 
nal tribes.  They  must,  at  all  events,  have  shared  it 
from  the  earliest  period  with  the  Aryan  immigrants. 
Ludlow 3  depicts  them  in  general  terms  as  "  savages, 
with  scarcely  a  rag  to  cover  them,  yet  honest  and 
truthful,  as  all  free  races  are."  "  A  tithe  of  the  care 
and  benevolence  expended  on  the  Hindus,"  says  a 
still  more  recent  writer,4  "  would  make  the  hill  races  a 
noble  and  enlightened  people."  However  strong  some 
of  these  expressions  may  seem,  the  unanimity  of  the 
best  observers  points  at  least  to  a  strong  democratic 
force  as  working  from  this  direction  on  the  Hindu 
social  system. 

Such  the  force  of  democratic  reaction  within  this 
oldest  system  of  social  wrongs,  —  a  system  which  has 
generally  been  taken  as  type  of  their  unchangeable- 
ness  under  heathen  influences.  Such  the  protest 
that  began  with  its  beginning,  and  steadily  smote 
against  its  iron  joints  till  it  broke  them  in  pieces ; 
not  indeed  introducing  liberty,  but  preparing  the  way 
for  it  by  dividing  the  bondage  to  an  indefinite  extent, 
atomizing  the  elements  as  it  were  for  better  affinities. 
And  this  old  Brahmanical  code,  wrecked  and  stranded 
by  the  sacred  instinct  of  freedom,  bears  witness  that 


1  Bengal  Journal,  1866.  2  Annals  of  Rural  Bengal,  pp.  202,  208,  216. 

8  British  India,  I.  19. 

4  Lewins,  Races  of  S.  E.  India,  349 ;  also  Journal  Bengal  Society  (1866),  II.  151. 


264  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

man  was  always  greater  than  his  own  theocracies, 
oligarchies,  or  despotisms, 'of  whatever  kind,  and  will 
never  abide  in  them  as  in  his  home. 

But  further,  so  far  as  was  possible  amidst  a  series 
L,  ..        of   changes  like  these,  each  caste  has  always 

Positive  &  J 

rights  of    really    stood    by   itself    in    political     matters, 

lower  castes.  „,  .  .  ~.  , 

managing  its  affairs  by  its  own  suffrage ;  and 
even  the  lowest  have  always  had,  notwithstanding  the 
theory  of  the  law,  certain  well-understood  and  well- 
defined  civil  rights,  such  as  that  of  acquiring  and 
bestowing  property,  learning  to  read,  and  performing 
certain  sacrifices.1  Caste  usages  have  even  been 
found  to  resemble  in  some  respects  the  ancient  popular 
institutions  of  the  European  Teutonic  tribes.  Slavery 
itself,  in  many  parts  of  India,  has  helped  to  equalize 
caste,  since  men  of  all  castes  could  become  slaves, 
and  a  Brahman  might  serve  a  Sudra ;  while,  in  Mala- 
bar, slaves,  in  their  turn,  have  had  higher  social  con- 
sideration than  some  of  the  free  castes.2 

Slavery  in  India  must  be  distinguished  from  caste. 
It  stands  on  a  wholly  different  basis  and  origi- 
nates in  causes  of  a  more  superficial  nature. 
According  to  the  Mohammedan  law,  there  is  but  one 
justifiable  ground  of  enslavement ;  namely,  punishment 
of  infidels  fighting  against  the  true  faith.  According 
to  the  Hindus,  fifteen  causes  are  enumerated,  among 
which  voluntary  or  involuntary  self-sale  is  the  sub- 
stance of  several,  and  punishment  that  of  others.3 
The  strong  language  of  the  law  concerning  a  slave's 
natural  destitution  of  rights  received  in  fact  many  im- 
portant qualifications.  He  could  be  manumitted ;  if 
he  saved  his  master's  life,  he  could  demand  his  free- 

1  Buyers's  Northern  India,  314,  457  ;  Allen,  India,  471. 

2  Adam,  Slavery  in  India,  131-133. 

s  Adam ;  Macnaghten's  Hindu  and  Moltanmiedan  Law. 


SLAVERY.  265 

dom  and  the  portion  of  a  son ;  if  the  only  son  of  his 
master,  both  his  slave  mother  and  himself  became  free 
by  virtue  of  that  condition  alone ;  when  enslaved  for 
special  causes,  voluntarily  or  otherwise,  his  bondage 
ceased  with  the  cessation  of  its  grounds.1  Contracts 
made  by  slaves  in  the  name  of  an  absent  master,  for 
the  behoof  of  the  family,  could  not  be  rescinded  by 
him  ;  nor  was  there  any  bar  to  the  institution  of  judi- 
cial proceedings  by  a  slave  against  his  master ;  nor,  in 
practice,  to  the  reception  of  his  testimony  thereon.2 
We  must  observe,  too,  that  slavery  in  India  has  not 
been  as  in  the  West  an  incident  of  race,  but  attached 
alike  to  all  races,  and  even  to  all  classes  in  society. 
It  was  therefore  impossible  that  the  relation  as  such 
should  be  held,  as  in  Christian  countries,  to  be  some- 
thing organic  and  essential  in  its  victim. 

Notwithstanding  Hindu  laws  speak  of  slaves  as 
mere  cattle,  though  they  could  be  transferred  Distinction 
with  the  soil,  or  sold  from  hand  to  hand,  and  °fEa^f™ 

'  from  West- 

though  their  condition,  especially  in  Southern  em  slavery. 
India,  has  been  past  description  miserable  and  de- 
graded,3 yet  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  slavery,  in  the 
sense  in  which  we  have  been  used  to  understand  the 
word,  has  not  existed  in  India.4  It  does  not  claim  in 
that  country  to  rest  on  religious  foundations.5  Chief 
Justice  Harrington  distinctly  declared  that  "  the  law 
and  usage  of  slavery  had  no  immediate  connection 
with  religion,"  and  that  its  abolition  would  not  shock 
the  religious  prejudices  of  the  people.     Manumission 


1  Colebrooke,  in  Macnaghten,  p.  130. 

2  Manu,  VIII.  167;  Adam,  p.  17. 

8  See  the  accounts  given  by  Adam ;  and  in  a  valuable  pamphlet  on  Slavery  in  India 
(printed  in  London  by  Thomas  Ward  &  Co.,  1841),  full  of  statistics  drawn  from  official 
documents,  originally  prepared  for  the  Morning  Chronicle. 

4  Buyers,  314,  315.  s  Macnaghten,  p.  12S. 


266  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

itself,  on  the  other  hand,  is  regarded  as  an  act  of  piety 
expiative  of  offences ;  and  by  the  Mohammedan  law 
it  is  expressly  commended  as  a  religious  merit.  The 
form  in  which  slavery  appeared  in  ancient  India  was 
so  mild  that  the  Greeks  refused  it  the  name ;  Megas- 
thenes  declaring  definitely  that  "  there  are  no  slaves  in 
India,"  and  Arrian  that  "  all  Hindus  are  free."  And 
even  in  later  times  and  in  regions  of  which  these 
writers  had  no  knowledge,  it  is  not  easy  to  find 
among  the  Hindus  the  abstract  idea  of  chattelhood,  as 
Western  ingenuity  has  wrought  it  out.  Everywhere, 
for  example,  are  traces  of  the  right  of  the  slave  to  in- 
heritance ;  while  the  "Law  of  Nature,"  as  the  Romans 
called  those  ancient  ethnic  customs  which  had  a  uni- 
versal scope,  was  always  favorable  to  his  claims.1  I 
venture  to  affirm  that  nothing  of  the  exact  nature  of 
Western  slavery  as  an  idea  existed  in  the  older  East, 
either  among  the  Hebrews,  the  Persians,  the  Chinese, 
or  the  Hindus.  The  systematic  reduction  of  men  to 
things  could  hardly  have  been  conceived  by  these 
instinctive  races.  It  belongs  to  socially  self-conscious 
generations,  who  know  enough  of  ideal  freedom  to 
comprehend  what  the  negation  of  it  implies.  It  is  a 
satanic  fall  made  possible  only  by  a  mature  sense  of 
personal  rights.  The  earliest  approach  to  it,  so  far  as 
I  know,  was  by  polished  ethical  philosophers  of 
Greece.2 

But  there  is  a  family  likeness  in  the  forms  of  slavery 
in    all    races    and  times.     And   that  theoretic 

Appeal  of 

caste  to  basis  which  could  not  quite  reach  the  absolut- 
ontoiogy.  -sin  0f  Western  bondage  was,  within  the  limits 
of  caste,  developed  with  extreme  precision.     The  idea 

1  Maine's  A  ncient  Law,  158-160.  2  Aristotle's  Politics,  B.  1.  ch.  4-6. 


SLAVERY.  267 

of  caste  everywhere  rests  upon  an  abstract  postulate 
of  organic  differences  among  men.1  Thus,  in  Manu, 
it  is  the  "  nature "  of  a  Brahman  to  read  Vedas,  to 
pray,  to  be  adored.  It  is  the  "  nature  "  of  a^  Kscha- 
triya  to  fight,  of  a  Vaisya  to  labor,  of  a  Sudra  to 
serve.  This  belief  grew  up  insensibly,  as  the  system 
became  fixed,  and  its  distinctions  hereditary.  Then 
the  Brahmanical  priesthood  went  further,  by  a  neces- 
sary law  of  development.  With  those  subtle  brains 
of  theirs,  they  spun  out  an  ontology  of  caste.  The 
laboring  class  represented  the  physical  world  of  ac- 
tion, in  their  philosophy  an  unreality,  a  kingdom  of 
obscurity  and  delusion.  The  soldier  caste  represented 
the  will,  which  struggles  up  out  of  this  lower  region, 
and  maintains  itself  in  contradistinction  therefrom. 
The  Brahmans  themselves  represented  the  purely 
spiritual  realm,  the  only  real  life,  absorbed  in  deity. 
As  for  the  lowest  caste,  it  lay  outside  the  world  of 
ideas,  an  opposite  pole  of  negation  ;  though  even  here 
it  would  seem  that  no  absolute  evil  was  affirmed,  since 
from  the  lowest  caste  one  might  rise  into  the  highest 
through  transmigration.  Thus  it  was  attempted  to 
justify  a  colossal  servitude  by  the  structure  of  the  soul 
and  the  constitution  of  the  universe.  To  us  the  chief 
value  of  this  attempt  is  in  its  illustration  of  the  neces- 
sity which  compels  every  form  of  injustice  to  render 
account  to  the  natural  sense  of  justice  in  mankind. 
Mere  power  never  sufficed  to  vindicate  any  despotic 
system  in  the  sight  of  man.  And  in  this  fact  lay 
guaranteed  from  the  first  an  ultimate  real  perception 
and  appreciation  of  social  ethics.     The  ceaseless  en- 

1  See  Grote,  on  Plato's  "guardians,"  or  "golden  and  silver  men,"  and  on  the  way  in 
which  they  would  necessarily  regard  the  "  brass  and  iron "  natures,  ordained  to  lower 
functions  and  destinies.     Grote's  Plato,  III.  214. 


268  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

forcement  of  all  institutions  to  plead  their  cause  at  the 
ideal  bar  of  conscience  leads  at  last,  without  need  of 
miracle,  to  a  true  commonwealth. 

It  was  inevitable  that  caste  should  be  driven  in  India, 
as  slavery  has  been  in  America,  to  justify  its  falsity 
upon  abstract  grounds  of  nature  and  right.  To  this 
theoretic  test  it  has  to  come,  whether  a  thousand  years 
before  Christ  or  two  thousand  years  after  him.  And 
the  appeal  to  ontological  defences  was  its  refutation, 
just  as  we  have  since  seen  it  to  be  the  suicide  of 
American  slavery. 

For  a  deeper  dialectic  came  to  rebut  them.  And 
Brahmanism  was  driven,  on  its  own  logical  ground, 
to  the  utter  denial  of  its  own  social  principle.  This 
result  came  to  pass  in  the  Buddhist  reaction.  For 
Buddhism  was  the  abolition  upon  recognized  meta- 
physical as  well  as  moral  principles,  of  all  distinc- 
tions founded  on  caste,  and  the  consequent  affirmation 
of  universal  brotherhood.  And  from  this  Brahmani- 
cal  caste  has  never  fully  recovered.  So  close  lay 
truth  to  honest  error,  so  inevitable  was  the  appeal  to 
pure  reason  three  thousand  years  ago.  The  history 
of  this  reaction  will  claim  our  attention  at  a  subsequent 
stage  of  these  studies. 

But  we  may  go  behind  the  spirit  of  caste,  to  far 
Democratic  nobler  tendencies  in  the  Hindu  mind.     The 

tendencies.         jd  Vedic    R  £Q    nQ].    recognize    ft    at    all. 

in  the  Hin-  J  <=> 

dumind  The  names  afterwards  given  the  three  upper 
castes  are  found  in  these  hymns,  but  not  as  indicative 
of  social  distinctions.  Brahmana  is  appellative  of 
prayer  ;  Kshatriya,  of  force  ;  and  Vis,  whence  Vais'ya, 
of  the  people  in  a  general  sense.  Indeed  the  old 
pastoral  Aryans,  as  we  have  seen,  were  a  very  demo- 
cratic community.     They  seem  to  have  known  no  dis- 


DEMOCRATIC    TENDENCIES.  269 

tinctions  resembling  those  defined  in  Manu.  The 
householder  had  his  chosen  seer,  like  the  Hebrew, 
or  might  himself  offer  sacrifices  as  the  head  of  his 
family.1  The  epics  speak  not  only  of  Brahmans  who 
descended  from  soldiers,  and  of  Vais'yas  taking  part 
in  government,  but  of  times  when  the  whole  popula- 
tion assembled  to  ratify  the  nomination  of  a  King.2 
In  the  Mahabharata,3  King  Judhishthira  is  inaugu- 
rated by  the  united  action  of  all  the  castes.  So  the 
Ramayana  tells  us  that  Das'aratha  called  a  great  coun- 
cil of  all  his  ministers  and  chieftains  to  discuss  the 
appointment  of  a  son  to  share  the  government ;  and 
that  all  the  people  were  gathered  together  in  like 
manner  to  express  their  preference,  and  give  their 
advice.  The  divine  Rama  is  the  ideal  of  a  democratic 
prince.  His  sanctity  in  the  epic  is  itself  a  transfer- 
ence of  the  ideal  of  religion  from  the  Brahman  to  the 
Kshatriya ;  an  affirmation  of  liberty  on  this  soil  of 
caste.  The  chiefs  praise  him  for  continually  "  inquir- 
ing after  the  welfare  of  the  citizens,  as  if  they  were 
his  own  children,  afflicted  at  their  distresses  and  re- 
joicing in  their  joy,  upholding  the  law  by  protecting 
the  innocent  and  punishing  the  guilty ;  so  that  all 
the  people,  whether  they  be  servants  or  bearers  of 
burdens,  citizens  or  ryots,  young  or  old,  petition  the 
monarch  to  install  Rama  as  coadjutor  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Raj."4  Rama's  brother  Bharata, 
seeking  to  move  him  from  his  determination  to  yield 
the  crown,  in  obedience  to  his  father's  vow,  as  a  last 
resort  appeals  to  the  people.  "  Why,  O  people  !  do 
you  not  lay  your  injunction  on   Rama  ? "     And  the 

1  Weber,  Vorlesungen,  p.  37;  Lassen,  I.  795.  2  Lassen,  I.  811. 

3  Mahabharata,  B.  11.  «  Ramayana,  B.  11. 


27O  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

people  reply  that  they  find  reason  on  both  sides,  and 
cannot  judge  the  matter  in  haste. 

The  people  were  from  the  first  divided  into  little 
clans  under  independent  chiefs.  Down  to  this  day 
the  tribes  of  the  Panjab,  that  oldest  homestead  of  the 
Hindu  Aryans,  remain  free  from  consolidated  mon- 
archy and  caste.1 

A  quarter  of  the  population  of  India,  about  fifty 
millions,  are  governed  by  about  two  hundred  native 
chiefs.  Such  is  the  force  of  the  centrifugal  principle 
of  local  independence.2  Small,  self-governed  com- 
munities, adhering  to  local  customs  and  traditions, 
and  organized  in  guilds  and  corporations,  exist  all 
over  India,  even  under  the  shadow  of  royalty  and 
caste,  persistent  protests  in  many  ways  against  the 
authority  of  these  institutions.3  The  type  of  this  free 
spirit  is  the  Sikh,  whose  Bible  says :  — 

"  They  tell  us  there  are  four  races ;  but  all  are  of  the  seed  of 
Brahm. 

"The  four  races  shall  be  one,  and  all  shall  call  on  the  Teacher. 

"  Think  not  of  caste,  but  abase  thyself,  and  attend  to  thy  own 
soul." 

Originally  the  full  title  of  the  laborer  to  the  soil  was 
Title  to  the  religiously  conce'ded.  w  The  old  sages  declare 
land.  that  cultivated  land  is  the  property  of  him  who 

first  cut  away  the  wood  or  cleared  and  tilled  it,  just 
as  an  antelope  belongs  to  the  first  hunter  by  whom  it 
is  mortally  wounded.4  Even  the  feudalism  of  the 
Rajput  princes  still  acknowledges  the  ryot's  ownership 
in  the  land.5  This  natural  hold  upon  the  soil  and  the 
right  of  self-government  consequent  thereon  have  been 

1  See  Weber,  p.  3.  2  IVestm-  Rev.,  July,  1839. 

3  Duncker,  II.  105;  Miiller,  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  52.  4  Manu,  IX.  44. 

6  Asiatic  Journal,  New  Series,  V.  41. 


com- 
munities. 


DEMOCRATIC    TENDENCIES.  2*]1 

embodied  by  the  Hindus  from  remote  times  in  what 
are  called  the  "Village  Communities."1 

By  this  system  the  land  is  held  by  the  village  com- 
mune as  an  organized  whole,  having  complete  village 
arrangements  for  distributing  the  produce 
among  the  laborers,  after  the  payment  of  a  certain 
small  fraction,  differing  at  different  times,  to  the  king 
and  the  local  chiefs.  The  village  has  its  arable  land 
cultivated  by  all,  and  its  waste  land  used  by  all  as 
pasture.  It  has  its  judge  or  head-man,  appointed  by 
the  raja  in  the  old  time,  but  now  a  hereditary  officer. 
He  is  the  agent  of  the  village  in  all  transactions  with 
the  government,  the  assessor  of  taxes  according  to 
property,  and  the  manager  of  the  common  lands. 
Yet  all  matters  of  moment  are  determined  by  "free 
consultation  with  the  villagers,  and  disputes  decided 
with  the  assistance  of  arbitrators."2 

The  organization  of  the  little  commonwealth  is  com- 
plete ;  having  its  judge,  its  collector,  its  superintend- 
ent of  boundaries,  its  notary  public,  its  weigher  and 
gauger  ;  its  guide  for  travellers,  its  priest,  schoolmaster, 
astrologer  ;  its  watch  and  police  ;  its  barber,  carpen- 
ter, smith,  potter,  tailor,  spice-seller;  its  letter-carrier, 
irrigator,  and  burner  of  the  dead  ;  all  functions  being 
hereditary  in  most  villages,  and  all  work  paid  for  out 
of  the  common  fund.3  Within  the  limits  of  Oriental 
instincts  this  little  community  is  an  independent  unit ; 
a  "  petty  republic ;  "  containing  within  itself  all  the 
elements  of  stability  and  mutual  satisfaction ;  organ- 


1  "The  right  of  the  sovereign  extended  only  to  the  tax.  Theoretically,  he  was  owner 
of  every  thing  acquired  by  his  subjects ;  but  practically  they  had  their  rights,  as  fully 
secured  as  his  own."     Ritchie,  British  World  in  the  East,  I.  179. 

*  See  Wheeler,  History  of  British  India,  II.  597.    Hunter's  Orissa,  (1872)  vol.  ii. 

8  MAX,  British  India,  I.  217;  Heeren,  Asiatic  Nations,  II.  259;  IVestm.  Review  for 
July,  1859 ;  Ludlow,  Brit.  India,  I.  61. 


272  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

ized  for  the  security  and  profit  of  each  family  in  the 
position  hereditarily  or  otherwise  assigned  it,  and 
according  to  the  recognized  measure  of  its  contribu- 
tion to  the  public  service.  And  these  villages,  it  may 
be  added,  have  from  very  ancient  times  been,  not  in- 
frequently, bound  together  into  larger  organizations, 
containing  generally  eighty-four  members.1  They 
are  an  admirable  illustration  of  the  principle  of  Mutual 
Helf,  and  of  its  controlling  influence  over  mankind  in 
the  early  organization  of  social  life.  The  members  of 
such  primeval  republics,  of  which  India  itself  has 
been  styled  "  one  vast  congeries,"  have  no  other  tradi- 
tions of  political  duty  than  what  this  form  of  govern- 
ment has  transmitted  from  immemorial  antiquity. 
"They  trouble  themselves  very  little  about  the  dis- 
memberment of  empires ;  and,  provided  the  township 
remain  intact,  it  is  matter  of  perfect  indifference  to 
them  who  becomes  sovereign  of  the  country,  the  in- 
ternal administration  continuing  the  same."2  The 
system  in  fact  rests  on  principles  that  may  not  only  be 
called  congenital  with  actual  Hindu  tribes,  but  go  back 
to  more  primitive  social  relations.  The  tie  which 
unites  the  members  of  these  village  communities  in- 
volves, as  Maine  has  shown  in  his  remarkable  work 
on  Ancient  Law,  the  assumption  of  a  common  family 
descent,  suggesting  unmistakably  their  origin  in 
Patriarchalism,  the  earliest  constructive  principle  of 
social  life.  The  same  profound  student,  in  a  more 
recent  volume  of  equal  interest,  has  added  to  his 
previous  parallel  between  the  Indian  communities  and 
the   Russian    and    Slavonian   village-brotherhoods,   a 


»  Elliott,  N.  W.  India,  II.  p.  4. 

*  Wilkes's  Historical  Sketches  of  the  South  of  India.     See  Heeren,  A  siatic  Nations, 
II.  260. 


DEMOCRATIC  TENDENCIES.  273 

description  of  the  very  close  resemblance  of  the  first- 
named  organizations  to  the  old  Teutonic  townships,  — 
a  resemblance  "  much  too  strong  to  be  accidental," 
—  and  especially  in  their  presenting  "  the  same  double 
aspect  of  a  group  of  families  united  by  common  kin- 
ship, and  a  company  of  persons  exercising  joint 
ownership  of  land."  *  These  Indo-European  affinities 
will  of  course  suggest  to  the  reader  a  common  origin 
in  the  primeval  life  of  the  race  previous  to  its  disper- 
sion into  different  nationalities. 

Mr.  Maine  infers  from  the  character  of  village  com- 
munities,  as  well  as  from  other  data,  that  the  Their liber. 
oldest  discoverable  forms  of  property  in  land  ties- 
are  collective  rather  than  individual  ownerships ; 2 
though  he  finds  a  periodical  redistribution  of  the  land 
among  families  to  have  been  universal  among  Aryan 
races.3  The  Hindu  villager's  idea  of  freedom  is  cer- 
tainly associated  with  the  rights  of  the  corporate 
body  of  which  he  is  a  member,  rather  than  with 
personal  independence,  and  the  notion  of  his  own  in- 
dividuality as  a  limitation  of  these  traditional  corporate 
rights  is  substantially  new  to  him.  The  idea  is  doubt- 
less profoundly  alterative  of  this  whole  system,  now 
subjected  to  the  influence  of  European  ideas  and  in- 
stitutions. Yet  the  defect  of  personal  freedom  is  by 
no  means  so  great  as  might  be  inferred ;  since  these 
corporate  rights  constitute  the  natural  body  of  political 
consciousness,  assuming  the  form  of  organic  guaran- 
ties and  sacred  trusts.  The  Family,  moreover,  has  its 
sphere,  within  which  the  commune  does  not  penetrate, 
protected  in  part  by  patriarchal  traditions  of  very 
great  sanctity.      Personal  property  is   by  no    means 

1  Village  Communities  in  the  East  and  the  West,  pp.  12,  107,  127. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  76.  3  Ibid.,  p.  82. 

18 


274  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

excluded  from  the  system  ;  and  even  the  arable  land, 
though  owned  by  all,  is  marked  off  to  different  culti- 
vators, by  more  or  less  permanent  arrangements. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  too,  that  the  absorption  of  pro- 
prietary rights  in  land  by  the  commune  is  by  no 
means  universal  in  the  Hindu  villages.  Whole  races, 
like  the  Jats,  spread  over  Northern  and  Central  India, 
are  described  *  as  thoroughly  democratic ;  as  having 
an  "  excessive  craving  for  fixed  ownership  in  the  land," 
of  which  every  one  has  his  separate  share,  while  the 
government  is  not  patriarchal,  but  to  a  very  great 
degree  representative.  On  the  Western  coast,  and  in 
the  broken  hilly  regions  especially,  the  land  is  largely 
held  by  private  ownership.2  And  the  isolated  home- 
stead so  natural  to  the  Teutonic  races  is  in  fact  very 
common  in  India,  notwithstanding  the  strong  ten- 
dency of  an  agricultural  population  like  the  Hindu, 
to  seek  the  advantages  of  a  communal  system  of 
cultivation.8  Seventy  years  ago,  Sir  Thomas  Munro 
found  the  lands  in  Kanara  owned  by  individuals  sub- 
ject to  government  assessments,  who  inherited  their 
estates  ;  and  "  who  understood  property  rights  as  well 
as  Englishmen."4 

Ramaswami  Naidu,  a  native  official,  of  reputation 
in  the  British  service,  prepared  a  careful  memoir  of 
the  tenures  of  those  ancient  States  which  came  to  be 
included  in  the  Madras  Presidency.5  It  contains  full 
evidence  that,  under  the  native  sovereigns  of  India,  a 
portion  of  the  cultivators  possessed  full  proprietary 
rights  in  the  soil,  while  another  portion  merely  paid  a 
tribute  to  the  kings  in  return  for  protection,  according 

1  See  Campbell's  elaborate  account  of  Indian  Ethnology ,  in  the  Journal  of  tlie  Bengal 
Society  for  1866. 

2  Campbell,  p.  S3,  134.  3  Maine,  Village  Communities,  p.  114. 
*  See  IVestm.  Rev.,  Jan.  1868.                    °  Journal  R.  A.  S.,  vol.  i.  292-306. 


DEMOCRATIC    TENDENCIES.  275 

to  a  fixed  proportion  of  their  products.  It  gives  us 
also  a  full  description  of  the  constitution  of  a  village 
community,  and  of  the  eighteen  salaried  officers  hered- 
itarily attached  to  it;  of  their  appointment  by  the 
king  in  newly  conquered  territories,  and  of  the  distri- 
bution of  free  proprietorships  among  the  clearers  of 
the  land.  "This  ownership,"  says  the  author,  "  the 
cultivators  enjoy  to  this  day,  because  hereditary  right 
to  the  soil  is  vested  in  them."  * 

Absolute  equality  is  no  part  of  the  ideal  of  a  Hindu 
commune.  There  are  "  parallel  social  strata  ;  "  and  in 
many  parts  of  India  outcast  classes  are  attached  to  the 
villages,  probably  belonging  to  indigenous  conquered 
races.  Yet  even  these  outsiders  are  held  authori- 
tative on  the  subject  of  boundaries ;  and  the  letter- 
carrier  and  burner  of  the  dead,  who  usually  belongs 
to  the  lowest  class,  is,  like  the  other  functionaries,  a 
free  proprietor,  with  official  fees.2  The  people  freely 
discuss  laws  and  customs ;  nor  can  the  constant  inter- 
mixture of  races  of  more  or  less  democratic  tendency, 
which  has  been  going  on  for  ages  all  over  India,  have 
failed  to  supply  elements  of  individuality  to  Hindu 
life.  It  has  already  been  observed  that  the  village 
system  is  by  no  means  an  exclusively  Aryan  institu- 
tion in  India,  but  indigenous  also;3 and,  even  where  it 
is  predominantly  Aryan,  the  native  tribes  have  been 
quite  freely  incorporated  into  its  membership,  and 
shared  its  elements  of  political  equality.  This  hospi- 
tality is  so  characteristic,  that  the  natural  working  of 
the  system  is  probably  preferable  in  such  respects  to 
the  changes  introduced  by  foreign  interference,  which, 

1  Wilson  {Hist.  India,  I.  41S)  declares  distinctly  that  "the  proprietary  right  of  the 
sovereign  derives  no  warrant  from  the  ancient  laws  or  institutions  of  the  Hindus." 

2  Ramasw.  Naidu.  3  Hunter's  Orissa,  vol.  i. 


276  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

in  Maine's  view,  has  induced  a  more  jealous  corporate 
exclusiveness,  clinging  to  vested  rights,  than  had  pre- 
viously existed.1  Looking  at  the  history  of  the  insti- 
tution as  a  whole,  we  may  discern  hints  and  openings, 
which  promise  to  throw  much  light  on  the  subject  of 
individual  freedom ,  as  an  element  of  Hindu  civili- 
zation. The  breaking  up  of  the  old  caste-system 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  persistence  of  these  local 
liberties  and  unities  of  the  agricultural  communes  on 
the  other,  are  facts  of  great  historical  significance,  in 
estimating  the  degree  in  which  the  idea  of  personal 
rights  and  duties  is  probably  already  developed  among 
the  races  of  India.  The  extent  to  which  the  com- 
munes have  absorbed  Brahmans  and  Kshatriyas  into 
the  class  of  cultivators  opens  the  further  question, 
how  much  this  permanent  devotion  to  agricultural 
industry  may  have  done  towards  counteracting  the 
exclusiveness  of  caste. 

The  village  community  is  now  affirmed  to  have  been 
the  primitive  political  unit  in  all  Aryan  tribes.  These 
little  Indian  republics  have  been  truly  characterized  as 
"  the  indestructible  atoms  out  of  which  empires  were 
formed."  Many  of  the  largest  cities  of  India  were 
originally  collections  of  these  villages.  Every  succes- 
sive master  of  the  soil  has  been  compelled  to  respect 
them,  as  the  real  "proprietary  units"  with  which  his 
authority  must  deal.  Wherever  the  English  have 
abolished  them,  the  people  have  returned  to  them  at 
the  earliest  opportunity.  Their  extension,  not  only 
over  all  India,  Aryan  and  native,  but  even  beyond 
Java,2  makes  them  the  ground  fact  of  Oriental  history, 
and  especially  interpretative  of  Hindu  character.    And, 

1   Village  Communities,  p.  167. 

*  Raffles,  quoted  by  Heeren,  II.  260. 


DEMOCRATIC   TENDENCIES.  277 

after  trying  all  their  own  bungling  and  barbarous 
forms  of  political  surgery,  the  latest  experimenters  in 
governing  India  find  the  main  features  of  this  ancient 
polity  best  suited  to  the  genius  of  the  race,  and  most 
consistent  with  social  order.  It  has  been  an  admirable 
preparation  for  that  system  of  full  personal  proprietor- 
ship, which  should  long  ere  now  have  been  accorded 
to  the  Hindu  people.1 

The  school-master  is  an  essential  member  of  this 
system;  and  by  virtue  of  his  function  enjoys   „, 

■'  •'  .  Education. 

a  lot  of  tax-free  land  by  gift  of  the  commune. 

"  In  every  Hindu  village  which  has  retained  its  old 
form,  I  am  assured,"  says  Ludlow,  "that  the  children 
generally  are  able  to  read,  write,  and  cipher ;  but 
where  we  have  swept  away  the  village  system,  as 
in  Bengal,  there  the  village  school  also  has  disap- 
peared."2 

Trial  by  jury  (panchdyet),  alike  for  the  determina- 
tion of  law  and  fact,  is  generally  a  part  of  this 
system  of  self-government ;  as  is  also  a  special 
service  for  the  discovery  of  criminals,  and  the  escort- 
ing of  travellers.  Mr.  Reynolds,  who  was  employed 
for  many  years  in  suppressing  Thuggery,  testified  in 
the  highest  praise  to  the  vigilance  of  the  village  police, 
and  to  the  aid  afforded  him  in  tracking  offenders 
sometimes  for  hundreds  of  miles.  He  went  so  far 
as  to  call  the  village  system  of  India  "  the  best  in  the 
world."3 


1  For  a  full  account  of  the  village  land-tenures,  see  Mackay's  Reports  on  Western 
India. 

2  British  India,  I.  62.  In  Bengal  alone  there  were  once  no  less  than  eighty  thousand 
native  schools ;  though,  doubtless,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  poor  quality.  According  to  a 
government  Report  in  1835,  there  was  a  village  school  for  every  four  hundred  persons. 
Missionary  Intelligencer,  IX.  133,  193. 

3  Ludlow,  I.  66  ;  II.  344. 


27S  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

The  panchdyet  juries  vary  in  their  composition, 
and  in  the  number  of  their  members.  Originally 
each  party  named  two,  and  the  judge  one.  It  is  a 
common  saying  in  India,  w  In  the  -panchdyet  is  God." 
And,  though  not  always  incorrupt,  its  administration 
is,  according  to  good  authority,  on  the  whole  "  singu- 
larly just."  The  influence  of  the  elders  of  the  village 
often  induces  contending  parties  to  yield  points  of 
difference,  or  even  to  forgive  the  injury.1 

In  Nepal,  both  civil  and  criminal  cases  are  referred 
to  the  panchayets,  at  the  discretion  of  the  court,  or 
the  wish  of  the  parties ;  the  members  being  always 
appointed  by  the  judge,  each  party  having  the  right 
of  challenge  in  case  of  every  man  nominated.  The 
parties,  in  other  cases,  name  each  five  members,  and 
the  court  adds  five  to  their  ten.  The  verdict  must  be 
unanimous,  to  effect  a  decision  of  the  case.  These 
jurors  are  never  paid  any  compensation  for  travel- 
ling expenses  or  loss  of  time.  The  prisoner  can 
always  confront  his  accuser,  and  cross-examine  the 
witnesses  against  him.  The  witness  is  commonly 
sworn  on  the  Harivansa,  which  is  placed  on  his  head 
with  a  solemn  reminder  of  the  sanctity  of  truth.  If 
a  Buddhist,  he  is  sworn  on  the  Pancharaksha ;  if  a 
Moslem,  on  the  Koran.  If  parties  are  dissatisfied 
with  the  judgment  of  the  courts  at  law,  they  can 
appeal  to  the  ministers  assembled  in  the  palace  at 
Kathmandu ;  applying  first  to  the  premier,  and,  if 
failing  to  obtain  satisfaction  from  him,  proceeding  to 
the  palace  gate  and  calling  out,  "Justice  !  Justice  ! " 
Upon  which  fourteen  officers  are  assembled  to  hear 
the  case,  and  give  final  judgment.2 

1  Eliiott,  N.  W.  India,  I.  2S2.  2  Hodgson,  in  Journal  R.  As.  Soc,  vol.  i. 


ican 
tendencies. 


DEMOCRATIC   TENDENCIES.  279 

The  Hindu  mind,  then,  retained  the  natural  bias 
towards  republicanism  which  was  so  distinctly  Repubii 
shown  in  the  Aryans  of  Vedic  times,  and 
which  reached  such  energetic  growth  in  the  Teu- 
tonic races  of  the  same  stem.  Neither  the  hot  sky 
of  Central  India,  nor  the  caste  system,  which  it  stimu- 
lated to  such  rankness,  could  eradicate  this  germ. 
Its  fires  constantly  broke  forth  in  organized  efforts  to 
expel  the  Mussulman  invader  from  the  soil.  The 
formidable  Mahratta  confederacy,  which  came  near 
overthrowing  first  the  Mogul,  and  then  the  British 
empires  in  India,  was  a  military  republic  of  independ- 
ent chiefs,  loosely  related  to  a  central  authority. 
The  Sikhs,  or  disciples,  at  first  peaceful  religious 
puritans,  became,  when  roused  by  Moslem  persecu- 
tion, ardent  apostles  of  political  liberty.  Even  after 
the  long  and  bloody  struggle  which  ended  in  the 
subjugation  of  the  peninsula  by  England,  there  still 
remained  the  energy  to  combine  in  one  immense 
revolt  against  a  foreign  despotism  that  had  been  peel- 
ing the  land  and  demoralizing  the  race  for  more  than 
a  century ;  and  to  compel  the  government  to  deprive 
the  colossal  East  India  Company  of  autocratic  power. 
A  brief  notice  of  some  of  the  most  important  features 
of  British  rule  in  India,  which,  it  must  be  remembered, 
have  been  succeeded  by  much  better  methods,  will  be 
here  introduced,  not  in  a  censorious  spirit  towards  the 
people  of  England,  for  whom  I  cherish  a  most  cordial 
respect,  but  because  such  a  review  will  enable  the 
reader  to  do  something  like  justice  to  the  natural 
qualities  of  the  Hindus,  and  to  judge  whether  their 
degeneracy,  so  much  harped  on,  is,  as  we  are  con- 
stantly told,  owing  to  viciousness  specially  inherent 
in  the  heathen  heart. 


280  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

The  English  systems  of  land  tenure  and  taxation 
have  been  more   prejudicial  to  the  rights  of 

Foreign  mis-  .  *■       J  o 

government;  the  village  communes  than  the  Mahommedan 
land  system.  which  they  superseded.  Under  the  latter,  the 
zemindars,  or  farmers  of  revenue,  took  from  a  fourth 
to  a  half  the  produce  of  the  ryot,  in  the  government's 
name,  paying  themselves  out  of  the  revenue  thus  ex- 
acted. The  English  transformed  the  zemindars  into 
positive  owners,  who  paid  quit-rent  to  the  Company, 
and  were  armed  with  powers  of  summary  distraint 
on  the  tenants ;  a  system  involving  the  utter  extinction 
of  native  rights,  which  had  still  lingered,  favored  by 
the  general  irregularity  of  the  Mussulman  administra- 
tion.1 The  presidencies  of  Bengal  and  Madras  becom- 
ing impoverished  by  this  policy,  the  Ryotwaree  system 
was  tried,  in  which  the  zemindars  were  supplanted  by 
the  government  tax-gatherers,  levying  directly  on  the 
villagers ;  and  this  proved  as  fruitful  of  corruption, 
extortion,  and  outrage  as  the  other.2  The  bribe  which 
would  often  deliver  the  ryot  from  the  clutch  of  the 
Mussulman  collector  would  not  assuage  the  rapacity 
of  his  Christian  successor.  The  one  was  generally 
content  with  payment  in  kind,  but  the  other  insisted 
on  having  money ;  thus  not  only  throwing  the  peasant 
into  the  grasp  of  usurers,  so  that  he  was  at  last 
obliged  to  alienate  his  land,  but  also  draining  the 
country  of  precious  metals,  to  enrich  a  foreign  com- 
pany.3 The  older  taxation  took  a  portion  of  the 
actual  crop  ;  but  the  English  "  fixed  an  assumed  capa- 
city of  each  field  for  produce,  and  an  assumed  price 
for  this,  and  then  from  35  to  40  per  cent  of  this  fixed 


1  See  Westm.  Rev.,  Jan.  1858. 

2  Ludlow,  Lect.  IX. 

3  Ibid  ;  McCulloch's  East  Indies. 


MISGOVERNMENT.  28 1 

sum  as  its  share  for  ever."  !  The  effect  was  to  absorb 
the  larger  part  of  the  ryot's  actual  income,  and  in 
general  to  sweep  away  the  whole.  From  the  time 
of  Clive,2  the  material  exhaustion  and  social  misery 
went  on  steadily  increasing,  until,  as  in  the  Puttee- 
daree  plan,  which  was  adopted  in  the  Panjab,  isolated 
efforts  were  made  towards  a  partial  return  to  the 
native  village  polity. 

In  1838,  by  the  exertions  of  many  leading  reform- 
ers, conspicuous   among  whom  were  George 

°  °         British 

Thompson  and  Daniel  O'Connell,  the  "Brit-  India  so- 
ish  India  Society"  was  organized,  — a  natural  ciety- 
offshoot  from  the  great  movement  against  Western 
slavery,  —  for  the  purpose  of  emancipating  the  masses 
in  Hindustan,  and  at  the  same  time,  through  the  devel- 
opment of  the  culture  of  cotton  in  that  country  by  free 
labor,  to  abolish  slavery  in  America  by  destroying 
the  English  market  for  the  slave-grown  article.  The 
apostles  of  this  movement  made  the  land  ring  with 
eloquent  denunciation  and  appeal.  They  brought  a 
flood  of  light  to  bear  on  the  wretched  condition  of  the 
Hindu  laborer.  Their  speeches  assailed  the  pretence 
that  the  Government  was  owner  of  the  soil  of  India, 
"  with  the  right  to  take  what  suited  it  from  every  man's 
field."  They  proved  that  its  extortion  of  rent  made 
private  property  in  land  impossible,  and  that  cultiva- 
tion had  decreased  in  consequence  in  the  ratio  of  two- 
thirds,  while  the  tax  assessed  continued  nearly  the 
same.  They  denounced  it  for  laying  high  taxes  on 
the  cultivation  of  waste  lands,  for  the  express  purpose 
of  preventing  the  impoverished  ryots  from  resorting  to 
these.     They  pointed  to   a   long  series   of  appalling 

1  Gen.  Briggs's  Speech  at  Glasgow,  Aug.  i,  1S39. 

2  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Clive- 


282  RELIGION   AND    LIFE. 

famines ;  in  one  of  which  five  hundred  thousand  per- 
sons perished  in  a  single  year,  while  grain  enough  was 
being  exported  from  Bengal  to  feed  the  whole  number 
with  a  pound  of  rice  a  day ;  and  another  of  which 
swept  off  three  millions  in  Bengal  alone.  They  de- 
scribed the  ruin  of  Hindu  manufacturing  industry, 
and  the  fall  of  British  imports  down  to  sixpence  a  head 
on  the  population.  They  warned  the  rulers  of  the 
detestation  in  which  they  were  held  throughout  India, 
of  the  elements  of  desperate  revolt  that  were  gather- 
ing. The  horrors  of  Hindu  slavery  were  spread  out 
before  the  eyes  of  the  British  people,  who  were  just 
then  striking  off  the  chains  from  their  West  India 
bondsmen.1  Yet  twenty  years  of  corporative  des- 
potism were  yet  to  elapse,  finding  their  natural  result 
in  the  terrible  scenes  of  1857-58,  before  the  worst 
features  of  the  old  land  system  in  India  began  to  yield 
to  the  civilization  of  the  age.2 

The  police  of  the  East  India  Company  was  as  mis- 
chievous  as  its  revenue  system.     It  was  de- 

Pohce.  J 

scribed  as  "  not  only  powerless  to  repress  crime, 
but  a  great  engine  of  oppression  and  corruption." 
The  venality  and  arbitrariness  of  the  courts  became 
intolerable,  and  were  among  the  leading  causes  of  the 
rebellion.3 

The  monopoly  of  opium  and  its  compulsory  culture 
Opium  were  sources  of  enormous  evil.  At  one  time 
trade.         a  fifth  of  the  revenues  of  the  Company  were 


1  Of  pre-eminent  value  were  the  labors  of  George  Thompson,  both  in  advocating  the 
abolition  of  slavery  and  in  defending  oppressed  and  defrauded  native  rulers,  with  a  thor- 
oughness and  eloquence  which  entitle  him  to  be  called  the  apostle  of  East  Indian  emanci- 
pation, as  he  was  one  of  the  bravest  helpers  of  the  American  slave. 

2  See  the  speeches  of  Thompson,  O'Connell,  and  Briggs,  before  the  British  India 
Societies  during  1839  and  1840,  for  abundant  and  startling  statistics  on  these  points. 

3  Ludlow,  ch.  xix. ;  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Warren  Hastings. 


MISGOVERNMENT.  283 

derived  from  this  pernicious  interest.  The  loss  of 
productive  industry  effected  was  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  moral  ruin  it  entailed.1  It  was  the  decisive 
testimony  of  Hastings  that  the  Hindus  were  a  remark- 
ably temperate  people  before  evil  communication  with 
the  Europeans  had  corrupted  them.2  The  use  of  in- 
toxicating drugs  is  prohibited  to  the  Brahmans  by  the 
native  law,  and  is  still  disreputable  among  the  higher 
classes.  In  the  rural  districts  intemperance  is  still 
rare;  but  wherever  English  rule  is  established,  and 
foreign  influence  active,  it  has  greatly  increased.  It 
is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  in  these  localities  the 
character  of  the  people  has  changed,  and  that  both 
Mohammedans  and  Hindus  are  rapidly  degenerating, 
under  the  effects  of  alcohol  and  opium.3 

The  Mohammedan  government  is  nowise  respon- 
sible for  the  terrible  results  of  the  opium  trade.  It 
repressed  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy  as  long  as  it 
was  able.  Ninety  years  ago  no  regular  trade  in 
opium  existed.  The  East  India  Company's  officers 
began  it  by  smuggling  a  thousand  chests  into  China. 
Thenceforward  the  "  fostering  care  "  of  the  Company 
developed  it  till  it  "  enticed  all  India,  native  and  for- 
eign, Christian  and  Buddhist."  In  1840  the  Chinese 
government  destroyed  twenty  thousand  chests  of 
opium,  being  not  more  than  half  the  importation  for  a 
single  year.  In  1858  the  production  in  India,  of 
which  England  held  the  monopoly,  for  exportation 
into    China,    amounted   to    seventy   thousand    chests. 

1  Westm.  Rev.,  July,  1859.  "  Half  the  crime  in  the  opium  districts,"  said  Mr.  Sym 
(Ludlow,  II.  300),  "is  due  to  opium.  One  cultivator  will  demoralize  a  whole  village." 
Dr.  Allen  (India,  p.  304)  declares  that  he  knew  nothing  in  modern  commerce,  except  the 
slave-trade,  more  reprehensible  than  the  manner  in  which  this  business  was  carried  on. 

2  Ludlow,  II.  302. 

8  Allen,  pp.  47S,  479,  497.  See  testimonies  collected  in  Thompson's  Address  at 
Friends'  Yearly  Meeting  in  London,  1S39. 


284  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

Government,  down  to  the  rebellion  of  1857,  not  only 
never  made  the  slightest  effort  to  repress,  but  steadily 
encouraged  it,  urging  the  legalization  of  it  upon  the 
Chinese  rulers,  who  as  strenuously  strove  to  resist  a 
scourge  that  was  desolating  their  dominions.  Eng- 
land, in  fact,  "  found  India  and  China  comparatively 
free  from  intemperance  through  the  positive  restraints 
of  Buddhism  and  Mohammedanism.  She  has  estab- 
lished in  these  countries  the  most  extensive  and  deeply 
rooted  debauchery  the  world  has  known."1 

"  The  intemperance  of  the  British  soldiery  in  India," 
wrote  Dr.  Jeffreys  in  1858,  "appears  to  be  bounded 
only  by  the  opportunities  they  can  command.  It  is 
to  a  lamentable  extent  associated  with  Christianity  in 
the  minds  of  the  natives.  Once,  on  my  making  in- 
quiries into  the  creeds  of  certain  black  descendants  of 
Europeans  in  the  Upper  Provinces,  a  well-informed 
Mussulman  informed  me  they  were  Christians,  that  he 
knew  it  (speaking  not  disrespectfully,  but  in  all  sim- 
plicity) from  their  being  nearly  all  of  them  drunkards. 
The  example  of  Christians,  and  the  efforts  of  govern- 
ment to  multiply  spirit-shops  for  the  sake  of  revenue, 
are  changing  the  habits  of  the  natives.  Drunkenness 
is  becoming  prevalent,  whereas  formerly  there  were 
few  who  touched  alcohol  in  any  form."2 

The  salt  monopoly  afforded  another  fifth  of  the  rev- 
saitmo-  enue  of  the  Company.  The  peasants  were  for- 
nopoiy.  bidden  the  very  salt-mud  of  the  river  mouths, 
their  main  reliance  for  agricultural  purposes.  "  Not  a 
grain  of  the  sun-evaporated  salt  left  by  nature  at  his 
own  door  could  be  placed  by  a  native  on  his  tongue,  or 

1  These  last  facts  and  affirmations  are  taken  from  a  work  by  Dr.  Jeffreys  on  The  British 
Army  in  India  (London,  185S).     See,  also,  Ludlow,  II.  302. 

2  Jeffreys,  p.  19. 


MISGOVERNMENT.  285 

removed  into  his  hut ;  "  and  the  trade  in  salted  fish  was 
destroyed.  At  one  time  the  price  of  this  necessary- 
article  was  raised  to  thirteen  hundred  per  cent  above 
the  cost  of  production.1 

The  supersedure  of  native  manufactures  by  English 
machinery  created  an  amount  of  suffering 
among  numerous  classes  in  India  scarcely  to  manufact- 
be  paralleled  in  the  history  of  labor. a  The  ures' 
slave-grown  cotton  of  America,  manufactured  in  Eng- 
land, was  forced  on  a  people  who  once  had  woven 
for  their  own  use  the  finest  fabrics  in  the  world.  The 
native  looms  that  not  long  before  produced  annually 
eight  millions  of  pieces  of  cotton  goods  were  stopped 
altogether.  Once  flourishing  cities  and  villages,  the 
seats  of  a  busy  and  thriving  population,  were  ruined. 
Dacca,  for  instance,  once  a  city  of  three  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  has  been  reduced  to  sixty  thou- 
sand;  and  its  transparent  muslin,  a  "woven  wind,"  a 
whole  dress  of  which  will  pass  through  a  finger-ring, 
is  "  almost  a  thing  of  the  past."  3 

The  older  governments  were  careful  to  build  roads 
and  secure  communication  across  the  country. 

_  •'      Internal 

In  1857,  the  "Friend  of  India"  confessed  thatcommuni- 
"  for  one  good  road  we  have  made  we  have catlon' 
suffered  twenty  to  disappear."  4  Four  or  five  thousand 
miles  of  railroad  have  since  been  projected  and  in 
great  part  constructed,  as  well  as  several  thousand 
miles  of  canal ;  but  the  native  industry  can  hardly 
have  begun  to  recover  from  the  terrible  discourage- 
ment created  by  the  long-continued  neglect  of  internal 
communication,  on  the  part  of  the  invaders,  and  the 


1  Ludlow,  Thompson,  &c.  2  Allen,  449. 

8  Ludlow,  I.  10.  *  See,  also,  Allen,  p.  327. 


286  RELIGION   AND   LIFE. 

incessant  shocks  of   conquest  and   civil  strife  which 
they  helped  to  introduce. 

The    Skanda    Purana    describes    the    descent    of 
.   .  ,      Ganga,  the  sacred  stream,  through  the  tresses 

Agriculture.  o     '  O 

of  Vishnu,  which  broke  her  fall  and  scattered 
her  waves,  bearing  fertility  to  the  land.  She  followed 
the  steps  of  Bhagiratha,  to  whom  she  was  granted, 
—  a  drop  of  the  waters  of  heaven,  as  reward  of  his 
all-conquering  devotion.  Such  the  consecration  in 
mythic  lore  of  the  popular  enthusiasm  and  love  for 
fertilizing  streams.  Nothing  in  the  Ramayana  is 
more  eloquent  with  genuine  national  feeling  than  the 
episode  in  which  the  descent  of  the  waters  is  identified 
with  the  beneficence  of  all  the  gods.  It  represents 
them  as  sent  to  revive  the  ashes  of  the  seventy  thou- 
sand sons  of  Sagara,  reduced  to  dust  by  Vishnu, 
"  spouse  of  the  all-nourishing  earth,  in  his  avatara  of 
Fire,"  because  they  reproached  him  with  carrying 
away  the  sacred  horse  of  their  father's  sacrifice,  which 
they  had  sought  in  vain  through  the  worlds.  These 
are  the  symbols  of  an  agricultural  people ;  and  the 
whole  is  manifestly  like  the  Greek  myth  of  Ceres  and 
Proserpine,  significant  of  the  death  and  re-birth  of 
vegetation. 

Serpents,  in  the  popular  mythology  of  India,  seem 
to  represent  this  oldest  interest  of  the  community. 
The  festivals  in  honor  of  these  first  owners  and  occu- 
pants of  the  ground  are  celebrated  by  young  and 
old,  rich  and  poor,  throughout  Western  India.  The 
children  have  holiday,  and  the  serpent  figures  are 
crowned  with  flowers.  In  the  Sutras,  Puranas,  and 
Epics,  these  animals  are  always  mentioned  with  respect, 
and  incarnations  in  serpent  form  abound.  The  popu- 
lar faith  ascribes  this  veneration  to  gratitude  for  the 


MISGOVERNMENT.  287 

forgiveness  shown  by  the  queen  of  serpents  to  the 
husbandman  who  killed  her  little  ones  by  the  stroke 
of  his  plough. 

The  prodigious  monuments  of  this  agricultural 
ardor,  so  intimately  related  to  the  old  Hindu  religious 
faith,  have  been  treated  by  later  invaders  very  much 
as  similar  achievements  by  the  ancient  Peruvians  were 
treated  by  the  Spanish  conquerors  of  South  America. 
Of  the  innumerable  canals,  reservoirs  and  tanks  for 
irrigation,  built  by  native  and  Mussulman  govern- 
ments, great  numbers  were  suffered  to  decay,  and  the 
contributions  paid  in  by  the  people  for  their  repair,  in 
accordance  with  ancient  custom,  were  appropriated  to 
other  purposes.1  Wherever  the  opportunity  has  been 
afforded,  as  especially  in  the  Panjab  of  late  years, 
the  natives  have  entered  with  vigor  on  the  improve- 
ment of  these  long-neglected  works,  and  their  exten- 
sion upon  a  suitable  scale. 

To  such  demoralizing  forces  the  Hindus  have  been 
subject  for  centuries.     When  we  read  therefore   .  , 

J  Inferences. 

of  the  filthy  condition  of  villages,  the  destitute 
and  despondent  state  of  the  agricultural  population, 
we  shall  not  need  to  resort  for  explanation  either  to 
caste  or  to  religion.  We  shall  appreciate  McCul- 
loch's  abundant  proofs  that  this  poverty  and  misery 
are  largely  owing  to  that  misgovernment  of  which  we 
have  here  given  but  the  merest  outline.2  We  shall 
appreciate  the  force  of  such  testimony  as  that  of  the 
"Bombay  Times,"  in  1849,  tnat  tne  boundaries  of  the 
dominions  of  the  East  India  Company  could  be  dis- 
covered by  the  superior  condition  of  the  country 
people  who  had  not  become  subject  to  their  sway ; 

1  Ludlow,  II.  317 ;  Arnold's  Dalhousie,  II.  282. 

2  Commerc.  Diet-,  article  on  East  Indies. 


2»i5  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

or  as  Campbell's,  who  affirms,  in  his  work  on  India, 
that  "the  longer  we  possess  a  province,  the  more 
common  and  grave  does  perjury  become ; "  or  as  Sir 
Thomas  Munro's,  half  a  century  since,  that  the  in- 
habitants of  the  British  Provinces  were  "  the  most 
abject  race  in  all  India."  We  shall  appreciate  the 
energy  with  which  Burke  declared  in  the  House 
of  Commons  that,  "if  the  English  had  been  driven 
from  India,  they  would  have  left  no  better  traces  of 
their  dominion  than  hyenas  and  tigers." 

Systematic  contempt  and  outrage  by  British  officials 
m-treat-  was  so  rnuch  a  matter  of  course,  that  for 
mem.  an  Englishman  to  treat  natives  with  common 

civility  was  looked  upon  as  a  prodigy ;  and  the  gov- 
ernment servants  had  a  general  impression  that  it 
would  bring  one  into  bad  odor  with  the  Company.1 
Impressment,  plundering  of  houses,  and  burning  of 
villages,  the  kick,  the  buffet,  the  curse,  mal-treatment 
in  every  form,  such  as  made  men  like  Metcalfe, 
Napier,  and  Shore  "  wonder  that  we  hold  India  for  a 
year,"  brought  the  ryots  to  the  conviction  at  last,  as 
the  missionaries  confessed  in  their  conference  of  1855, 
that  "the  Christian  religion  consisted  in  having  no 
caste,  eating  beef,  drinking  freely,  and  trampling  on 
the  rights  of  niggers."2  The  gross  immoralities  of 
Europeans  in  the  early  period  of  British  rule  in  India 
in  fact  led  to  the  use  of  the  term  Christian  as  a  by- 
word, having  nearly  the  sense  of  "bastard  ; "  and,  "had 
the  name  been  altogether  laid  aside,  it  would  have 
been  a  great  blessing  for  those  parts  of  India  most 
frequented  by  Europeans."3     It  can  therefore  hardly 

1  Hon  F.  J.  Shore.     See,  also,  Speeches  at  Friends'  Meeting  in  London,  1839 

2  Ludlow,  II.  365. 

3  Buyers's  Northern  India,  p.  107  ;  Sanger,  History  0/  Prostitution,  p.  423  ;  Westm. 
Rev.  for  July,  1868.  ' 


MISGOVERNMENT.  289 

be  held  suggestive  of  special  hardness  in  the  natural 
heathen  heart,  when  we  find,  after  more  than  a  century 
of  British  sway,  that  there  are  less  than  a  hundred 
thousand  Christian  converts  in  India  out  of  a  popula- 
tion of  nearly  two  hundred  millions ;  and  less  than 
twenty  thousand  out  of  the  forty-five  millions  of 
Bengal. 

It  remains  to  add  one  more  item  to  this  sad  detail 
of  Christian  influence  in  India.     Not  only  did    „, 

J  Slavery. 

the  Company  gratuitously  sanction  existent 
Hindu  and  Mohammedan  slavery  by  interpreting  law 
in  its  interest,  needlessly  placing  it  under  the  shield  of 
"  respect  for  the  religious  institutions  of  the  natives  ; " 
not  only  did  it  everywhere  permit  and  justify  the  sale 
of  this  kind  of  property  among  them ;  not  only  en- 
courage an  external  slave-trade,  for  a  long  period 
carried  on  for  the  supply  of  India  by  Arab  traders 
with  the  coast  of  Africa  and  the  Red  Sea  ;  not  only 
sell  slaves  itself,  to  secure  arrears  of  revenue.  It 
steadily  resisted  numerous  endeavors  to  obtain  the 
abolition  of  Hindu  slavery  on  the  part  of  such  men 
as  Harrington  and  Baber,  from  1798  to  1833. 1  Not 
till  1811,  was  legislation  directed  against  the  slave- 
trade  ;  and  the  law  then  made  prohibited  the  sale  of 
such  persons  only  as  should  be  brought  from  abroad 
for  this  express  -parfose,  —  a  limitation  which  rendered 
it  of  no  effect.  Every  extension  of  British  territory 
increased  the  traffic,  opening  the  whole  domain  to 
importation  of  fresh  victims.2  In  1833,  a  bill  intro- 
duced by  Earl  Grey,  for  abolishing  slavery  in  five 
years,  was  so  emasculated  in  its  passage  through 
Parliament  by  the  opposition  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 

1  See  the  case  fully  stated  in  Adam's  Slavery  in  India. 

8  Judge  Leycester,  in  Parliamentary  Documents  for  1839,  No.  138,  p.  315. 

19 


290 


RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 


ton  and  others,  as  to  come  out  finally  but  a  timid  recom- 
mendation to  the  Company  to  mitigate  the  evil  as  far 
as  should  be  found  convenient ;  serving  only  to  en- 
courage and  confirm  it.  The  earnest  agitation  of  the 
subject  by  the  British  India  Society  in  1838  aroused 
fresh  interest ;  but  the  East  Indies  and  Ceylon  were 
excepted  from  the  great  Colonial  Emancipation  of  that 
year.  Nor  can  I  learn  that  any  complete  Act  of  Aboli- 
tion has  been  passed,  down  to  the  present  hour.  What 
we  are  here  especially  to  observe  is  the  fact  that  this 
continuance  of  so  barbarous  a  system  has  not  had  the 
excuse  of  a  necessary  regard  for  the  prejudices  and 
interests  of  the  people.  Judge  Vibart,  after  an  inves- 
tigation made  by  desire  of  government  in  1825,  re- 
ported that  the  respectable  classes  of  the  Hindus  were 
strongly  in  favor  of  abolition,  and  that  the  Moham- 
medans had  no  very  great  objection.  Macaulay,  as 
Secretary  of  the  Board,  was  assured  by  the  ablest  of 
the  Company's  civil  servants  that  there  would  be 
no  danger  in  the  attempt.  In  1833,  four  thousand 
Hindus,  Parsees,  and  Mohammedans  memorialized 
Parliament,  thanking  it  for  its  exertions  to  abolish  the 
slave-trade.1  It  was  the  opinion  of  able  lawyers  that 
the  Mohammedan  law  itself,  if  rightly  executed, 
would  free  almost  all  the  slaves  in  India ;  nor  has 
that  of  the  Hindus  any  immediate  connection  with 
their  religion  or  their  system  of  caste. 

But  we  hasten  from   this   criticism   to   an  estimate 
.     ,      which  could  not  be  fairly  presented  without 

Traits  of  . 

Hindu  such  reference  to  an  oft-told  history,  otherwise 
character.  neecjing  no  fresn  recital.  Charges  of  gross 
depravity  are  constantly  brought  against  the  Hindus 

1  Pamphlet  on  Slavery  in  India,  compiled  largely  from  official  documents ;  printed  by 
Ward  &  Co.,  London,  1841. 


HINDU    CHARACTER.  20,1 

as  a  people.  Such  writers  as  Mill  and  Ward  seem  to 
be  incapable  of  finding  any  good  in  them.  Of  these 
sweeping  accusations,  falsehood,  vindictiveness,  and 
sensuality  have  been  the  most  frequent.  The  best 
authorities  agree  in  refuting  them.1  Dr.  Jeffreys 
allows  himself  the  extravagant  statements  that  "every 
child  is  educated  carefully  to  avoid  speaking  the  truth, 
except  as  a  matter  of  interest  or  necessity,"  and  "that 
they  will  compass  each  other's  ruin  or  death  for  the 
smallest  object."  Colonel  Sleeman,  on  the  contrary,  tells 
us  he  has  had  hundreds  of  cases  before  him  in  which 
a  man's  property,  liberty,  or  life  depended  on  his  telling 
a  lie  ;  and  he  has  refused  to  tell  it,  to  save  either.  Mr. 
Elphinstone,  whose  opportunities  were  those  of  thirty 
years  in  the  highest  positions  in  Indian  service,  de- 
scribes the  Rajputs  as  remarkable  "  for  courage  and 
self-devotion,  combined  with  gentleness  of  manners 
and  softness  of  heart,  a  boyish  playfulness  and  an 
almost  infantine  simplicity."  "  No  set  of  people  among 
the  Hindus,"  he  continues,  "are  so  depraved  as  the 
dregs  of  our  own  great  towns.  The  villagers  are 
everywhere  amiable,  affectionate  to  their  families,  kind 
to  their  neighbors,  and  towards  all  but  the  government 
honest  and  sincere.  The  townspeople  are  different, 
but  quiet  and  orderly.  Including  the  Thugs  and 
Decoits,  the  mass  of  crime  is  less  in  India  than  in 
England.  The  Thugs  are  almost  a  separate  nation, 
and  the  Decoits  are  desperate  ruffians  in  gangs.  The 
Hindus  are  a  mild  and  gentle  people,  more  merciful 
to  prisoners  than  any  other  Asiatics.  Their  freedom 
from  gross  debauchery  is  the  point  in  which  they 
appear  to   most   advantage ;    and  their   superiority  in 

1  See  especially  Montgomery  Martin's  admirable  Report  on  the  Condition  of  India 
(1838). 


292  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

purity  of  manners  is  not  flattering  to  our  self-esteem."1 
"  Domestic  slaves  are  treated  exactly  like  servants, 
except  that  they  are  regarded  as  belonging  to  the 
family.  I  doubt  if  they  are  ever  sold."2  It  is  highly 
creditable  to  the  Hindus  that  Siva-worship  through 
the  symbol  of  reproduction,  the  lingam,  once  widely 
spread  in  India,  is  now  found  to  have  "no  hold  on 
the  popular  feeling,  and  to  suggest  no  offensive  ideas." 
"It  is  but  justice  to  state,"  says  Wilson,  "that  it  is 
unattended  in  Northern  India  by  any  indecent  or 
indelicate  ceremonies ;  and  it  requires  a  lively  imagi- 
nation to  trace  any  resemblance  in  its  symbols  to  the 
objects  they  are  supposed  to  represent.  The  general 
absence  of  indecency  from  public  worship  and  re- 
ligious establishments  in  the  Gangetic  provinces  was 
fully  established  by  the  late  General  Stuart,  and  in 
every  thing  relating  to  actual  practice  better  authority 
cannot  be  desired."3  The  licentious  customs  attri- 
buted to  the  sakti-worshippers  the  same  authorities 
state  to  be  seldom  practised,  and  then  in  secrecy  ;  and 
to  be  held  illicit  even  by  their  supporters,  if  instituted 
merely  for  sensual  gratification.4  Statistics  show  that 
the  profligacy  of  the  large  cities  of  British  India 
hardly  exceeds  that  of  European  communities  of 
similar  extent.  And  to  the  amount  actually  existing 
the  habits  of  Europeans  have  largely  contributed ; 
while  the  efforts  of  the  government  to  diminish  this 
form  of  immorality  have  done  much  to  counterbalance 
these  bad  influences,  as  well  as  to  suppress  the  older 
religious  ceremonies  which  involved  it.5 

1  History  of  British  India,  pp.  375-381-     See  Ritchie,  British  World  in  the  East, 
I.  186. 

2  Elphinstone,  I.  350. 

3  Wilson,  Essays  on  Religion  of  Hindus,  II.  64  ;  I.  2ig.  4  Ibid.,  I.  261. 
B  Sanger,  History  of  Prostitution,  p.  423. 


HINDU    CHARACTER.  293 

The  great  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  practical 
morals  of  the  Hindus  is  doubtless  due  in  part  Morality 
to  the  great  varieties  of  moral  type  that  must 
exist  in  so  immense  and  complex  a  population  as 
that  of  India,  subjected  to  such  variety  of  foreign 
influence  for  thousands  of  years.  It  does  not  appear, 
however,  that  the  Hindus  have  been  more  inclined 
to  sensuality  than  other  races.  This  is  true  of  them 
even  as  sharing  the  almost  universal  cultus  of  the  pro- 
ductive principle  in  nature,  whose  symbols  seem  to 
have  represented  the  sacred  duty  of  man  to  propagate 
his  kind.  They  have  always  had  sufficient  sense  of 
propriety  to  carve  the  statues  of  their  gods  in  a  way 
not  to  give  offence  to  modesty.1  Yet  their  vices  must 
on  the  whole  have  been  such  as  belong  to  the  impres- 
sible temperament  of  tropical  races,  the  passive  yield- 
ing fibre  that  obeys  the  luxury  of  illusion  and  reverie. 
The  truth  must  be  somewhere  between  the  unbounded 
praises  lavished  by  Greek  writers  on  the  ancient  Hin- 
du0  and  the  excessive  censure  of  their  descendants 
by  Christian  criticism. 

It  is  in  no  unmindfulness  of  these  probabilities  in 
the  case  that  I  add  a  few  more  good  words  for  this  non- 
Christian  people  from  competent  witnesses.  Malcom 
"could  not  think  of  the  Bengal  sepoys  in  his  day  without 
admiration."  Hastings  said  of  the  Hindus  in  general 
that  they  were  M  gentle  and  benevolent,  more  suscep- 
tible of  gratitude  for  kindness  shown  them  and  less 
prompted  to  vengeance  for  wrongs  inflicted  than  any 
people  on  the  face  of  the  earth;  faithful,  affectionate, 
submissive  to  legal  authority."  Heber,  whose  detes- 
tation of  the  religions  of  India  was  intense,  yet  records 
similar  impressions.     "The  Hindus  are  brave,  cour- 

1  Stevenson,  in  Jour.  Roy.  As.  Soc,  1842,  p.  5. 


294  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

teous,  intelligent,  most  eager  for  knowledge  and 
improvement;  sober,  industrious,  dutiful  to  parents, 
affectionate  to  their  children,  uniformly  gentle  and 
patient,  and  more  easily  affected  by  kindness  and 
attention  to  their  wants  and  feelings  than  any  people 
I  ever  met  with."1  Doubtless  these  statements,  like 
those  on  the  other  side,  are  highly  colored ;  but  they 
have  great  value  in  view  of  the  character  and  op- 
portunities of  their  authors.  "  The  Hindus,"  says 
Harrison,2  "are  a  mild,  peaceable  people,  fulfil  the 
relations  of  life  with  tolerable  exactness,  naturally 
kind  to  each  other,  and  always  ready  to  be  hospita- 
ble, even  where  poverty  might  exempt  them  :  they  are 
never  deficient  in  filial  affection.  It  is  a  common  thing 
to  find  people  in  humble  walks  of  life  bestowing  a  third 
or  even  half  their  scanty  income  on  aged  and  destitute 
parents."  I  will  only  add  the  somewhat  ardent  tribute 
of  the  Mohammedan  Abul  Faz'l,  vizier  of  the  great 
Sultan  Akbar  in  the  seventeenth  century,  a  thoroughly 
competent  witness.  "The  Hindus,"  he  says,  in  his 
Ayin  Akbari,  "are  religious,  affable,  cheerful,  lovers 
of  justice,  given  to  retirement,  able  in  business,  ad- 
mirers of  truth,  grateful,  and  of  unbounded  fidelity. 
And  their  soldiers  know  not  what  it  is  to  fly  from  the 
field  of  battle." 

What  inhumanity  must  have  been  needed  to  rouse 
such  a  race  to  the  barbarities  of  Delhi  and  Cawn- 
pore  ! 

It  must  be  remembered  that  these  barbarities  were 
cruelties  of  not  tne  work  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  and 
the  war.  that  they  were  quite  paralleled  by  cruelties  on 
the  part  of  the  Christian  invaders  both  before  and 
afterwards.     The  horrors  of  Cawnpore  were  the  work 

1  Heber's  Journal,  II.  369,  409.  2  English  Colonies,  p.  64,  66. 


HINDU    CHARACTER.  295 

of  Nana  Sahib  and  his  body  guard  of  savage  adher- 
ents, his  own  soldiers  "refusing  to  massacre  the  women 
and  children,  which  was  accomplished  by  the  vilest 
of  the  city,"  while  his  own  officers  sought  in  vain  to 
dissuade  him  from  his  monstrous  purpose.1  Dr.  Mc- 
Leod  invokes  his  countrymen  to  public  confession, 
with  shame  and  sorrow,  "  of  indiscriminate  slaughter 
perpetrated  in  cool  blood  by  Christian  gentlemen,  in  a 
spirit  which  sunk  them  below  the  level  of  their  ene- 
mies." 1  The  atrocities  of  this  war,  on  the  part  of  the 
Hindus,  were  in  fact  the  natural  excesses  of  an  excit- 
able people,  driven  to  madness,  not  merely  by  such 
crimes  as  the  causeless  massacre  of  the  loyal  thirty- 
seventh  Sepoy  regiment,  at  Benares,  such  treacheries 
as  the  broken  promise  of  higher  pay  to  the  army  of 
Oude,  such  outrages  on  the  religious  convictions  of  the 
native  soldiers  as  the  compulsory  use  of  cartridges 
greased  with  pork,  but  by  a  long-continued  series  of 
enormities  that  had  become  habitual.  As  illustrative 
of  these,  the  fact  will  suffice  that,  a  year  or  two  before 
the  revolt  of  1857,  investigations  by  the  govern- 
ment brought  to  light  a  regular  system  of  torture  of 
the  most  revolting  description  even  upon  women, 
which  for  years  had  been  applied  in  many  parts  of 
India  by  native  officers  of  the  Company,  in  the  collec- 
tion of  its  revenues  and  for  extorting  evidence.  This 
insurrection  was  but  the  last  of  a  series  growing  out  of 
similar  causes,  and  upon  the  greatest  scale  of  all.  It 
was  the  common  cause  of  dispossessed  kings  and  beg- 
gared chieftains  starting  up  and  springing  to  arms  all 
over  India  ;  the  issue  of  a  policy  of  annexation  and 
"subsidiary  alliances,"  pushed  for  half  a  century  by 
bribery,  fraud,  and  force  ;  of  the  industries  of  millions 

1  McLeod,  Days  in  Northern  India,  p.  68. 


296  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

drained,  and  the  hoarded  wealth  of  ages  swept  off,  to 
fill  the  coffers  of  rapacious  foreign  masters  ;  of  syste- 
matic outrage  and  contempt  as  of  the  lower  animals, 
practised  upon  a  race  whose  literature  is  magnificent, 
and  whose  civilization  runs  beyond  historic  record; 
of  a  system  of  exclusion,  which  shut  out  the  native  of 
India  from  office  and  opportunity,  whether  civil  or 
military  :  the  issue,  in  short,  of  monstrous  misgovern- 
ment,  which  the  noblest  men  had  labored  ineffectu- 
ally to  reform,  and  which  had  made  the  coming  of 
just  such  an  earthquake  as  this,  for  every  thoughtful 
mind  in  India,  merely  a  question  of  a  few  years  more 
or  less  of  time.  It  could  not  be  said  that  the  East 
India  Company  had  attempted  to  suppress  the  religion 
of  the  Hindus  :  it  would  give  little  countenance  to 
missionary  efforts,  and  it  even  derived  revenues  from 
the  superstitious  rites  of  the  most  ignorant  classes ; 
yet  it  had  not  succeeded  in  the  slightest  degree  in 
calming  the  nervous  fears  of  the  Sepoy  army,  which 
knew  its  character  by  closest  contact,  that  the  native 
beliefs  and  traditions  would  be  recklessly  trampled  out 
by  its  mere  military  and  secular  interests. 

It  is  by  no  means  my  purpose  to  throw  the  respon- 
justiceto  sibility  of  the  terrible  scenes  of  1857-58  upon 
both  sides.  t]ie  ]?ast  India  Company  alone.  I  have  no 
desire  to  hide  either  the  difficulties  of  the  position  with 
which  they  had  to  deal,  or  the  previous  semi-barbar- 
ized condition  of  the  Hindu  States,  upon  which  in 
many  respects  certainly  their  rule  was  an  improve- 
ment. The  brutality,  corruption,  and  weakness  of  the 
later  Mogul  princes  of  India,  had  disorganized  these 
communities  ;  and  robber  tribes  and  robber  chieftains 
were  spreading  desolation  through  portions  of  the 
peninsula  when  the  French  and  English  began  their 


HINDU    CHARACTER.  297 

struggle  for  its  possession.  Still  more  important  is  it 
to  recognize  the  improvement  in  Indian  affairs  after 
their  administration  — withdrawn  from  the  East  India 
Company  in  consequence  of  the  revolt  —  was  assumed 
by  the  British  people.  New  civil  and  criminal  codes 
have  been  introduced,  more  wisely  regardful  of  the 
interests  of  the  native  tribes ;  municipal  and  other 
offices  have  been  transferred  in  some  degree  to  native 
talent ;  and  the  extortion  of  rents  has  been  measur- 
ably guarded  against.  The  results  of  these  changes, 
it  is  claimed,  are  already  apparent  in  improved  culti- 
vation, purer  administration,  and  happier  social  life ; 
though  such  terrible  facts  as  the  Orissa  famine  in 
1865,  with  its  record  of  governmental  neglect,  become 
all  the  more  discreditable,  in  view  of  such  claims. 
While  we  render  all  due  credit  to  those  who  have 
labored  to  bring  about  these  measures,  and  are  labor- 
ing for  still  more  important  ones  equally  consistent 
with  the  spirit  of  the  age ;  and  while  the  noble  record 
of  individual  officers  and  scholars,  like  Bentinck, 
Elphinstone,  Briggs,  Crawford,  Jones,  Lawrence, 
through  the  long  history  of  British  India,  should  re- 
ceive the  lasting  gratitude  of  science  and  humanity,1 
—  we  would  not  fail  to  note  also  the  bearing  of  the 
happy  results  so  speedily  claimed  for  a  juster  policy,  on 
the  question  of  Hindu  capacity  and  character.  That 
Mogul  oppression  should  have  brought  about  the  de- 
generate social  condition  of  the  natives  at  the  com- 
mencement of  British  rule,  is  nowise  to  their  dis- 
credit. That  such  amelioration  as  is  now  described 
should  follow  at   once    in    the   track    of  the    earliest 

1  The  reader  will  find  this  record,  which  I  would  gladly  pause  here  to  review,  in  the 
pages  of  Kaye's  Lives  of  Indian  Statesmen,  Arnold's  Dalhousie,  and  other  like  works, 
familiar  to  the  public  in  England  and  America. 


298  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

fair  opportunity  afforded  them,  after  more  than  a  cen- 
tur}'  of  this  rule,  is  surely  a  strong  argument  in  their 
favor. 

And,    after  all,  the  conclusion  we  draw  from   this 
painful  history  must  differ  widely  from  that  of 

Nemesis.        ±  j  j 

writers  whose  view  springs  from  their  natural 
sympathy  with  the  victory  of  a  higher  civilization  over 
a  lower,  and  from  that  only.  This  crowning  insur- 
rection, in  the  view  of  history,  reflects  more  credit  on 
the  conquered  than  on  the  conquerors.  If  Macaulay's 
logic  be  admitted  as  fair,  when,  in  his  brilliant  essay 
on  the  life  of  Clive,  he  affirmed  that  "  the  event  of  our 
history  in  India  is  a  proof  that  sincerity  and  upright- 
ness are  wisdom,  that  all  we  could  have  gained  by 
imitating  the  duplicity  around  us  is  as  nothing  when 
compared  with  what  we  have  gained  by  being  the 
only  power  in  India  on  whose  word  reliance  can  be 
placed,"  —  what  inference  could  be  drawn  when  his 
premise  was  reversed  by  unanswerable  facts,  and  the 
event  proved  an  utter  absence  of  confidence  in  the 
government  of  India  from  end  to  end  of  the  land? 
What  a  piece  of  irony  does  the  complacent  self-eulogy, 
echoed  by  so  many  less  respectable  voices,  become  ! 
The  event  of  European  government  in  India  yields 
a  very  different  lesson.  When  the  rajas  of  Oude 
marched  in  procession  to  give  in  their  adhesion  to  the 
British  Government,  after  the  conquest  of  that  kingdom, 
"all,"  says  McLeod,  "were  thankful  for  their  restored 
lands,  and  the  hope  of  British  protection.  But  there 
was  not  one  who  loved  us  for  our  own  sakes ;  not  one 
who  would  not  have  preferred  a  native  rule  to  ours, 
even  with  tolerable  protection  of  life  and  property ; 
not  one  who  did  not  regret  the  unrighteous  destruction 


HINDU    CHARACTER. 


299 


of  the  Kingdom  of  Oude."1  So,  in  the  war  of  1S57, 
almost  the  whole  Bengal  army  was  in  sympathy  with 
the  rebellion.2  It  was  universally  recognized  at  that 
time  that  the  long-continued  rule  of  England  in 
India  had  in  no  degree  reconciled  the  masses  of  that 
vast  empire  to  the  authority  of  their  masters.  "  If  the 
Russians  should  march  an  army  into  Scinde,"  said  the 
"Westminster  Review,"  so  late  as  in  1868,  "  a  spirit  of 
disaffection  and  desire  of  change  would  agitate  the 
whole  country."  This  persistent  refusal  to  accept  or 
to  trust  selfish  and  despotic  rulers,  with  whatever  un- 
civilized impulses  it  may  be  connected,  gives  hints  of 
higher  loyalties.  And  humanity  finds  its  real  interest 
in  the  impressive  fact  that,  after  centuries  of  wars  and 
tyrannies,  Persian,  Afghan,  Mongol,  Mohammedan 
and  Christian,  there  should  yet  have  survived  enough 
of  the  old  Aryan  fire  to  turn  on  the  latest  invader  in 
determined  and  desperate  revolt.  Such  wrath  indeed 
smoulders  in  the  most  gentle  and  laborious  races, 
and  in  them  is  most  terrible  when  its  frenzy  comes  at 
last.  In  the  East  and  in  the  West  alike,  a  Nemesis 
has  awaited  proud  and  selfish  nations  for  exploit- 
ing races  weaker  than  themselves.  The  passion  of 
the  Hindu  and  the  patience  of  the  American  Negro 
are  dissimilar  qualities ;  but  the  wrongs  of  both  are 
avenged. 

The  Hindus  do  not  deserve  contempt  on  any  ground. 
They  are  made  for  noble  achievement  in  phi- 

.  .  r  Promise. 

losophy,  in    aesthetics,  in  science,  and  even, 
with  Western  help,  in  social  and  practical  activities. 
Their  full  day  has  not  yet  come.     Their  vitality  is  far 
from  spent:  they  are  not  in  their  senescence,  but  in 

1  Days  in  Northern  India,  p.  88.  2  Ibid.,  p   166. 


300  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

their  prime.  Their  chiefs,  often  ferocious  and  crafty, 
are  as  often  heroic  and  magnanimous.  Sivaji,  Hyder 
Ali,  Tippoo  Saib,  Holkar,  and  others,  were  brilliant 
soldiers,  and  fought  valiantly  for  their  cause  to  the 
death.  India  has  no  lack  of  subtle  thinkers,  learned 
scholars,  able  administrators,  shrewd  merchants,  nor 
yet  of  generous  helpers  in  the  improvement  of  the 
people.  An  estimate  made  by  British  officials  in  1829 
represents  the  works  of  public  utility  constructed  by 
individuals,  without  view  to  personal  profit,  in  a  single 
district  of  half  a  million  people,  as  amounting  in  value 
to  nearly  a  million  pounds  sterling,  besides  plantations 
of  trees  enclosing  two-thirds  of  the  villages.1  Hindu- 
stan  has  native  scholars  of  eminence  both  in  Sanskrit 
and  European  letters,  whose  editorship  of  Sanskrit 
works  as  well  as  contributions  to  the  philosophical 
and  ethnological  journals  are  at  this  time  especially 
of  great  value.  Deva  Sastri  mastered  the  Eastern 
and  Western  systems  of  Astronomy.  Rajendralal 
Mitra  was  entrusted  with  the  task  of  expounding  the 
ancient  coins  discovered  in  1863,  and  has  brought  out 
important  Brahmanical  and  Buddhist  works.  The 
lamented  Radhakanta  Deva  Bahadur,  the  author  of 
an  immense  Sanskrit  encyclopaedia,  was  an  honorary 
member  of  numerous  learned  European  Societies. 
Fresh  editions  of  the  national  epos,  and  other  great 
works  of  antiquity,  with  valuable  commentaries, 
paraphrases,  and  learned  revisions,  have  within 
a  few  years  appeared  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  which  owe  very  much  of 
.their  excellence  as  well  as  their  elegance  to  the  per- 
sonal   industry,    ability    and    munificence,    of    native 

1  See  Westm.  Rev.,  July,  1868. 


HINDU    CHARACTER.  3OI 

scholars.1  There  is  ample  ground  for  predicting  that, 
as  further  friction  with  Western  thought  shall  elicit 
the  special  genius  of  the  Hindus,  it  will  be  found 
capable  of  supplying  many  desiderata  in  our  Western 
civilization,  contributing  in  ways  as  yet  unimagined 
by  us  to  the  breadth  and  fulness  both  of  our  religious 
and  social  ideals. 

The  effect  of  a  sensuous,  enervating  climate  on  the 
Aryan  has,  however,  been  in  many  ways  Powerand 
prodigious.  His  very  idealism  became  a  defect- 
persuasion  of  the  nothingness  of  the  individual. 
The  lack  of  practical  stimulus  inclined  his  intellect 
to  contemplation,  and  turned  his  first  endeavor  at  the 
organization  of  Labor  into  what  looks  to  us  more  like 
an  organization  of  Idleness  :  the  drone  priest  at  the 
head,  the  drudging  menial  at  the  foot,  the  lazy  soldier, 
a  blight  on  industry,  between  the  two.  Hindu  life,  in 
its  twofold  aspect,  grew  more  and  more  like  the  great 
rivers  it  dwelt  by,  in  their  alternate  flood  and  failure, 
overflow  and  return.  In  Thought,  a  great,  broad, 
still,  dreamy  sea,  its  bare,  motionless  face  upturned 
to  the  sky ;  in  Action,  a  cooped  and  stinted  stream, 
however  stirred  here  and  there,  girt  with  broad  strips 
of  thirsty  desert  and  even  treacherous  slime.  Surely 
it  is  refreshing  to  find,  under  these  dead-weights  of 
physical  nature,  the  earnest  endeavor  for  co-opera- 
tive work,  the  love  of  agriculture,  the  unconquerable 
germs  of  liberty.  The  degeneracy  itself  has  its 
hopeful  side.  It  does  not  prove  that  the  physical 
must  inevitably  overmaster  the  spiritual  everywhere, 

1  Many  of  these  are  mentioned  in  a  synopsis  of  the  recent  publications  of  the  Asiatic 
Society  of  Bengal,  in  Zeitschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  XXV.  (1871),  p.  656.  Their  contributions 
to  the  Bibliotheca  Indica  have  been  of  especial  value.  Gildemeister(5^/.  Saiiskr-,  1S47) 
mentions  more  than  60  Hindu  scholars  of  our  time,  besides  100  earlier  ones. 


302  RELIGION    AND    LIFE. 

except  under  specifically  Christian  disciplines.  It 
illustrates  the  universal  law,  that  the  life  that  spends 
itself  in  thinking  or  dreaming,  and  fails  to  put  its 
brain  into  its  hand,  under  whatever  disciplines  or 
"  dispensations,"  unmans  itself,  and  becomes  impotent 
even  to  think  and  dream. 


II. 

RELIGIOUS     PHILOSOPHY. 


Dj^O-O- 


I. 

VEDANTA. 


VEDANTA. 


HPHE  theme  now  before  me  recalls  a  profound  im- 
pression  of  the  naturalness  of  theism,  left  The  Circle 
on  my  mind  many  years  since  by  the  wonderful  ass>rmbo1- 
circles  of  Stonehenge.  The  circle  is  the  integer  of 
Form.  Repeated  in  the  apparent  courses  of  the  stars, 
in  the  seasons,  in  vegetation,  in  alternations  of  life 
and  death,  crowning  all  natural  forces  with  recurrence 
and  consent,  it  held  sway  in  the  soul  of  the  rude  wor- 
shipper also  ;  and  there  on  the  round  plain,  where  only 
the  sweep  of  self-re-entering  lines  meets  the  eye, 
whether  above  or  around,  he  had  built  his  colossal 
altar  in  its  image,  even  out  of  the  natural  stones,  with- 
out cement,  almost  without  art.  The  half-conscious 
child  of  Nature  had  laid  his  hand  on  her  central  truth, 
—  "  Greater  than  the  many  is  the  One." 

It  is  a  fact  of  psychological  interest  that  similar 
megalithic  structures  in  circular  form  and  of  prehis- 
toric origin  have  been  found  in  Ireland,  Scandinavia, 
Germany,  Arabia,  and  India.1  The  oldest  monu- 
ments in  Southern  Asia  are  probably  of  this  char- 
acter.2 The  history  of  religious  art  shows  us  a  very 
early  and  wide-spread  use  of  this  natural  symbol  of 
wholeness,  or  all-embracing  unity. 

1  Ethnoghiie  Gauloise  (Paris,  1868),  p.  520;  Lubbock's  Prehistoric  Man. 
!  See  Meadows  Taylor,  in  Journal  of  Bombay  Branch  of  Roy.  As.  Soc.  (IV.  380). 
Ferguson  {Rude  Stone  Monuments)  thinks  these  cromlechs  are  of  more  recent  origin. 


306  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

It  is  nearly  two  hundred  years  since  Cudworth's 
,.    learned  demonstration  that  the  polytheism  of 

Universality  x       J 

of  the  idea  the  ancient  world  was  but  the  cover  of  a  deeper 
0  mty'  faith  in  One  Supreme  God.1  The  argument 
was,  confined  to  certain  great  philosophical  and  mytho- 
logical systems,  and  marred  by  a  strong  dogmatic 
bias  towards  deriving  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients  from 
Hebrew  sources.  It  did  not  deal  with  the  natural  laws 
of  religious  belief,  which  show  us  a  theistic  germ 
unfolding  in  the  earliest  stages  of  social  growth.  Illus- 
trations of  these  laws  are  now,  however,  quite  abun- 
dant ;  and  the  grounds  of  this  all-pervading  aspiration 
of  mankind  should  be  recognized  by  every  thoughtful 
mind. 

Unity  is  the  sublime  conclusion  of  science ;  but 
religion  does  not  wait  for  science.  The  soul  is 
clearer-sighted  than  the  understanding.  It  blends 
poet,  philosopher,  and  saint  in  the  wonder  and  awe  of 
the  child  at  what  he  simply  sees  and  feels. 

The  most  unreflecting  savage  cannot  quite  escape 
,    the  impression  that  he  is  the  one  cause  of  the 

Its  grounds  *■ 

in  natural  multiplicity  of  acts  which  make  up  his  life, 
intuition.  jje  at  ieast  unconsciously  follows  this  thread 
of  inward  unity  in  dealing  with  the  varied  phenomena 
of  outward  nature.  Just  as  he  shapes  an  ideal  in  the 
image  of  every  passion  and  propensity  within  him,  so 
he  is  always  more  or  less  haunted  by  the  intimation 
of  some  highest  all-containing  presence,  in  the  image 
of  that  personal  identity  which  all  these  passions  and 
propensities  represent.  In  all  his  worship  of  elemen- 
tary forces,  there  is  the  play  of  this  guiding  instinct, 

1  Intellectual  System  (Harrison's  ed.,  London,  1845).  See,  especially,  I.  435  ;  II.  226, 
246,  300. 


VEDANTA.  307 

this  law  of  his  inner  being.     As  mental  growth  ad- 
vances, higher  forms  of  the  intuition  are  attained. 

Either  the  gods  are  referred  back  to  a  first  God,  to 
somewhat  in  the  dim  Unknown  whence  they  all  Its  diverse 
emerge,  or  to  a  constant  central  force  of  living  forms- 
deity,  —  and  in  these  ways  have  been  shaped  certain 
Greek  and  Semitic  theogonies,  —  or  else,  if  that  point  is 
not  yet  reached,  all  the  gods  are  made  implicitly  one ; 
as  we  have  seen  in  the  Vedic  hymns,  where  worship  is 
always  essentially  the  same,  an  effort  for  supreme 
devotion  to  each  and  every  name  in  turn.  Self-con- 
sciousness may  be  ever  so  rudimentary,  it  suffices 
for  this  implicit  unity  in  the  movements  of  the  relig- 
ious instinct.  All  worship,  even  in  the  lowest  tribes, 
has  at  least  this  in  common,  —  that  it  is  an  up- 
ward look :  the  names  of  primitive  deities  are  found 
to  be  curiously  associated  with  terms  that  mean  over- 
head, above,  or  with  root-sounds  that  signify  upward 
motion.  The  subjective  attitude  of  these  simple  minds 
in  worship  is  always  a  more  or  less  similar  resultant 
of  blended  hopes  and  fears.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  objects  of  these  emotions  are  always  more  or  less 
consciously  referred  to  the  all-surrounding  and  enfold- 
ing Whole  ;  which  contains  in  its  mysterious  depths  all 
their  minor  capabilities  of  help  and  harm,  and  which 
the  orbed  eye  finds  constantly  present,  whether  it 
looks  upward  into  the  infinite  spaces,  or  traces  the 
paths  of  all-pervading  light,  or  searches  the  horizon 
line. 

The  rude  cromlech  speaks  to  the  universal  relig- 
ious sentiment.  The  belief  in  an  all-embracing  and 
all-controlling  One,  however  diverse  in  form,  is  not 
special   to   tribe   or   religion.     It  is   human.     In  the 


308  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

sense  I  have  noted,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  with 
Maximus  Tyrius,  "All  mankind  are  agreed  that  there 
is  one  God  and  Father,  and  that  the  many  gods  are 
his  children."  1  Even  from  the  rude  races  of  America 
and  Africa,  the  latest  researches  already  referred  to 
bring  ample  testimony  to  this  tendency  of  belief,  in 
names  of  supreme  meaning,  more  or  less  perfectly 
expressive  of  unity,  even  if  not  clearly  conceived  as 
involving  it.2  What,  to  a  more  advanced  stage  of 
reflection,  are  deities  but  forms  of  deity  ?  The  gods 
are  but  "  co-rulers  with  God,"  this  one  name  express- 
ing the  essence  of  sway,  on  which  the  special  force 
of  each  depends.  Neither  in  Plato  nor  Maximus 
Tyrius,  neither  in  Hebrew  Psalmists  nor  Christian 
Fathers,  does  the  term  gods,  so  often  used,  imply 
the  denial  of  One  as  Supreme.  On  the  contrary,  the 
sovereign  unity  receives  thereby  a  greater  fulness 
of  life  and  relation.  "  His  manifold  powers,  diffused 
through  his  works,"  says  Maximus,  "  we  heathen 
invoke  by  different  names.  Of  the  gods,  there  are 
many  names,  but  one  nature."  "Let  us  worship 
Him,"  says  Proclus,  "  as  unfolding  the  whole  race  of 
deities,  as  the  God  of  all  gods,  the  unity  of  all  unities, 
as  holy  among  the  holy  ones,  and  concealed  in  the 
intelligible  gods."  "  Owing  to  the  greatness  of  the 
Deity,"  says  the  Hindu  Nirukta,  "the  One  Soul  is 
lauded  in  many  ways.  The  different  gods  are  mem- 
bers of  the  One  Soul."3 

1  Dissert.  XVII.  5.  See,  especially,  Lamennais,  Essai  stir  Vlndiffirence  eti  Matiere 
de  Religion,  ch.  xxvi.  De  Belloguet,  in  a  learned  word  on  Druidism  (Ethnogenie 
Gauloise,  has  carefully  traced  this  belief  through  the  various  branches  of  the  Aryan 
family,  especially  the  Celtic.  On  the  theistic  elements  in  the  religion  of  the  Babylonians, 
Chaldaeans,  and  Phoenicians,  see  Fiirst,  Gesch.  d.  Bibl-  Lit.,  I.  45-49- 

2  Brinton's  MytJts  of  New  World,  ch.  ii.  ;  Livingstone's  Africa ;  Baring  Gould's 
Origin  and  Development  of  Religious  Belief  I.  274. 

3  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts,  IV.  134. 


VEDANTA. 


309 


These  poles  of  unity  and  variety  coexist  in  strictly 
tfreistic  religions  also.     We  call  the  Hebrews 

.       °  Polarity  of 

monotheists  ;  but  Jehovah  was  "  God  above  all  Theistic 
gods,'"  and  Elohim  was  a  plural  noun.     If  a  faith' 
Hindu    synthesis    reconciles   Brahma,   Vishnu,    Siva, 
in  a  form  of  theism,  so  Christianity  has  its  triperson- 
ality  of  God.     Even  its  liberal  sects  are,  in  substance, 
adorers  both  of  a  Christ  and  a  God.     The  Gnostics 
were  believers  in  a  Divine  Unity,  yet  with  hypostases 
and    aeons  they   made   God  thirty-fold.      The   ruder 
Romanist  adores  saints  and  pictures,  holy  coats  and 
handkerchiefs.     He  would  probably  find  it  difficult  to 
separate  these,  in  his  sense  of  personal  reliance,  from 
deity  itself,  which  he  nevertheless  knows  to  be  one  and 
only  one.     Practically,  the  idols  of  the  Christian  world 
are  numberless.     They  are  not  personified,  like  their 
analogues  in  the  ancient  world  ;    so  that  we  do  not 
apply  to  this  form  of  worship  the  term  polytheism. 
And  yet  it  would  probably  be  hard  to  prove  that  the 
sense  of  Supreme  Unity  was  intercepted  by  swarming 
divinities  in  the  average   Greek   mind   more   effectu- 
ally than  it  is  by  these   materialistic   and  traditional 
idolatries,  the  fetichism  of  modern  society  and  trade. 
The   idea   of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal,  in  its  distinc- 
tion as  spiritual   reality  from  the  vague   cravings  of 
unlimited  special  desires,  has  to  be  continually  renewed 
by  thinker  and  prophet,  as  of  old. 

As   this    idea   of   infinite    Mind,  one  in  itself,  and 
containing  all  things,  has  never  been  lost  bv 

.  J    Intuition  of 

man,  so  it  has  not  anywhere  been  wholly  the  one  in- 
absent.  It  is  organic  and  vital ;  and  its  flame  destructible- 
has  at  times  burned  low  only  to  startle  some  Moses, 
Pythagoras,  Zoroaster,  into  making  fresh  appeal  to 
the  simple  sense  of  reality,  and  recalling  man  to  him- 


3IO  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

self.  The  Greek  Mysteries,  brought,  it  is  probable, 
from  the  East  by  the  Dorians,  were  specially  effective 
for  two  thousand  years,  in  this  direction  as  well  as 
in  maintaining  faith  in  moral  sanctions  and  spiritual 
destinies  beyond  death ;  and  almost  all  the  great  men 
of  ancient  times  seem  to  have  been  initiated  into  them.1 
To  the  philosophers  indeed  the  "  large  utterance  "  of 
those  ancient  gods  spoke  of  a  transcendent  One  ;  while 
the  popular  faith  beheld  all  its  deities  gathered  at  the 
common  hearth  of  Hestia,  at  the  world's  centre,  and 
around  the  Father  Jove.  Even  the  monstrous  figures 
of  popular  Eastern  mythology  were  vestiges  of  this 
inevitable  instinct.  Brahma  with  his  foot  in  his  mouth, 
and  Vishnu  on  his  coiled  serpent,  or  with  his  necklace 
of  worlds,  are  but  mythic  sport  with  the  ideal  Circle, 
that  sacred  line  which  returns  into  itself;  the  natural 
symbol  of  the  One.  The  three-headed,  hundred- 
armed,  thousand-eyed  divinities  of  the  Greeks  and  the 
Hindus  did  but  multiply  numbers,  in  order  to  embrace 
the  more  in  unity.  It  was  the  play  of  a  Pythagorean 
instinct  in  the  rude  imagination  of  childish  races. 

To  find  this  sense  of  a  Supreme  Unity  or  wholeness 
The  Hindu  on  which  all  religion  rests,  in  its  most  absolute 
pieroma.  form,  we  must  appreciate  the  philosophical 
capacity  of  the  Aryan  Hindu.  Here  was  the  very 
field  for  his  vast  generalizations  upon  a  few  observed 
data,  for  his  measureless  abstraction,  his  passion  for 

1  "  Go  on  in  the  right  path ;  and  contemplate  the  one  ruler  of  the  world. 
He  is  one,  and  self-proceeding.     From  Him  only  are  all  things  born  ; 
He  works  in  all,  unseen  by  mortal  eyes,  yet  seeing  all." 
(Orphic  Hymn  of  tiie  Mysteries,  quoted  by  Clem.  Alex.,  Exhort,  to  the  Heathen,  VII.) 

"  When  you  pray,  go  with  a  prepared  purity  of  mind,  such  as  is  required  of  you  when 
you  approach  the  rites  and  mysteries"  (Epictetus,  III.  21).  "The  Eleusinian  mysteries 
are  called  hiitia,  both  because  they  are  indeed  the  beginnings  of  a  life  of  true  principles, 
and  as  teaching  us  to  realize  a  better  hope  in  death"  (Cic,  De  Legibus,  II.  14).  "Of 
them  stands  human  nature  most  in  need  "  (Isocrate«,  Panegyr). 


VEDANTA.  311 

pure  thought  in  its  ultimates.  All  forms  of  the  con- 
ception of  unity,  from  the  simplest  to  the  most  subtle, 
were  involved  in  the  nebulous  fulness  of  his  idea.  It 
was  indeed  a  Pleroma  (to  use  Neo-Platonic  terms  of 
speech),  from  which  the  various  theological  systems 
of  the  world  may  be  drawn  forth,  as  (sons,  at  least 
by  speculative  construction ;  though  of  course  but  as 
ideal  foretypes  of  what  was  to  be  unfolded  in  the 
solidity  of  science  and  practical  use,  by  other  times  and 
more  energetic  races.  In  the  Hindu  mind,  it  stood 
simply  as  the  free  play  of  pure  idea ;  the  unity  of  all 
essence  and  all  existence ;  the  sweep  of  an  Infinite 
Circle ;  deity  as  inclusion  and  evolution  of  all  forms. 
This  is  the  central  sun  of  Hindu  philosophy ;  the  key 
to  its  religious  mysteries,  and  its  philosophical  re- 
actions. "Who  so  worships  this  or  that  special  and 
separate  being,"  says  the  Brihad  Upanishad,  "  worships 
determination,  not  totality,  —  worship  thou  Soul,  in 
which  all  the  differences  become  one." l 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  this  aspiration  haunted 
and  swayed  the  Hindu  mind,  from  infancy  to  Deveiop- 
the  most  abstract  introversion  of  its  later  sys-  mef  ofi^eal 

J         unity  m  Hin- 

tems.  Students  like  Pictet  and  Muller  be-  du  thought, 
lieve  that  they  find  signs  of  "  an  original  monotheism," 
positive  or  implicit,  in  the  primitive  faith  of  the  pre- 
Vedic  times.2  Cosmic  theism  would,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  be  a  better  expression  for  what  was  not,  in  any 
sense,  opposed  to  polytheism,  nor  yet  in  any  sense  a 
distinct  primitive  revelation,  from  which  men  after- 
wards fell  away.  A  step  further  down,  in  the  earlier 
Hymns  of  the  Veda,  we  find  Varuna,  rounding  the 
universe  with  order,  maker  of   the  sun's  paths  and 

1  Brihad,  I.  iv. 

2  Muller,  Sansk.  Lit.,  pp.  528,  559 ;  Pictet,  Les  Aryas  Primitifs,  II.  704-714. 


312  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

preserver  of  all  sacred  limits,  alike  in  the  worlds  of 
sense  and  soul ;  absorbing  into  one  the  primitive  in- 
stinctive notions  of  moral  sequence  and  spiritual 
authority,  of  justice,  providence,  and  fate.1  It  is  be- 
lieved by  some  that  this  name  Varuna,  identical  with 
Ouranos  of  the  Greeks,  whom  Hesiod  makes  the 
father  of  the  gods,  was  itself  the  oldest  in  Aryan 
mythology.2  It  must,  however,  have  required  a  long 
time  to  mature  so  distinct  and  positive  a  conception  of 
Moral  Order  as  is  contained  in  the  Vedic  Hymns  to 
Varuna.  If  in  a  'more  -primitive  meaning  his  name 
was  really  the  oldest,  it  must  have  given  way  to  that 
of  Indra,  as  the  next  name  of  the  Supreme  in  this 
development  of  religious  sentiment,  or  sense  of  whole- 
ness. Like  Varuna,  Indra  concentrated  all  powers  : 
not  at  the  far  off  limits  of  thought,  but  in  the  sense  of 
a  closer  presence,  felt  in  the  ethereal  expanse,  into 
which  the  stars  fade  and  the  moon  wanes  and  the 
clouds  melt,  and  shifting  light  and  shadow  resolve 
their  mystic  play.  The  vast  abyss  of  creative  light 
absorbed  all  phenomena,  and  deity  shone  in  the  sym- 
bol of  Fire,  through  man  and  beast,  through  star  and 
sod.  Then,  as  introversion  grew,  came  more  definite 
concentration  of  the  religious  idea  around  light  as  a 
nearer  image  of  the  conscious  soul,  at  once  self-centred 
and  radiating  through  all ;  whereof  the  Sim  was  the 
natural  symbol,  and  so  became  under  many  names 
the  next  emphasis,  or  phase,  of  unity  for  the  spiritual 
process  we  are  tracing.  Then  all  the  verses  of  the 
Veda  are  concentrated  in  the  Gdyatri:  "  we  meditate 
on  the  adorable  light  of  the  divine  Savitri."  All  its 
deities  are  resolved  into  gods  of  the  earth,  the  air,  the 

1  See  Roth,  in  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morg.  Gesellsch.,  vol.  vi.  p.  77. 

2  Koeppen,  Religion  des  Buddha,  I.  p.  3 


VEDANTA.  313 

sky,  "whose  names  differ  according  to  their  works; 
but  there  is  only  one  godhead,  the  Sun,  life  of  all 
beings,  of  motion  and  of  rest."1  All  these  are  further 
gathered  into  one  "lord  of  creatures"  (Prajapati)  or 
"deity  of  them  all;"2  and,  again,  their  whole  mean- 
ing is  absorbed  into  the  sacred  monosyllable  A  UM, 
and  even  drawn  into  inward  concentration  in  the  triple 
suppression  of  the  breath,  with  mind  fixed  on  the  Su- 
preme."3 Or  all  symbolism  is  dropped,  as  the  depths 
of  consciousness  are  explored ;  and  that  questioning 
about  the  how,  the  whence,  and  the  whither  of  life, 
which  had  been  stirring  thoughtful  minds  through  all 
these  ages,  is  solved  in  "  One  Eternal  Soul,"  invested 
with  every  appellative  of  Infinite  Power,  Wisdom, 
Goodness.  Brahma,  Adhyatma,  Purusha,  had  one 
meaning.  "  Spirit  alone  is  this  All."  "Him  know  ye 
as  the  One  Soul  alone  :  dismiss  all  other  words."4 

Such  the  aspiration  to  Unity  in  pantheistic  instincts, 
which  nothing  but  absorption  therein  could  satisfy. 

Let  us  recognize  the  nature  of  this  change  from  the 
world  of  action  to  the  world  of  contemplation.  Natureof 
Probably  it  was  not  to  any  great  extent  shared  the  Process- 
by  the   mass  of  the   Aryan  community,   whose  epic 
traditions  indicate    intense    susceptibility  to   sensuous 

1  Old  Vedic  commentary :  see  Lassen,  I.  768.  2  Colebrooke,  Essays,  I. 

3  Manu,  II.  83.  The  mystic  syllable  OM  {aum)  is  the  constant  sign  of  that  worship  of 
unity,  which  pervades  Hindu  thought.  Burnouf  {Sansk.  Diet.)  refers  it  to  avam,  as  from  the 
Zendic  ava  {this  one),  marking  existence,  —  "  He  that  is  to  be."  But,  more  probably,  it 
was  a  combination  of  the  initials  of  the  three  main  elements  of  Vedic  deity,  —  Agni,  Varuna, 
and  the  Maruts.  The  Mandukya  Upanishad  refers  the  three  letters  to  Brahma,  as  wak- 
ing, dreaming,  and  sleeping ;  in  other  words,  as  manifested  outwardly,  as  manifested  to 
himself,  and  as  ;<«manifested,  in  the  unity  of  his  essence ;  while  the  whole  word,  abolishing 
the  distinctions  of  the  letters,  represents  his  absolute  nature.  The  formula  of  the  Bhaga- 
vadgita  is  Om  tat  sat,  or  "  God  is  tliat  [i.e.,  the  universal]  reality."  Later  still,  the  same 
syllable  unites  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva  in  a  trinity.  It  expresses  the  Buddhist  oneness 
of  "Saint,  Law,  and  Congregation."  It  is  the  prelude  to  all  Buddhist  formulas  of  prayer. 
To  the  Brahmanic  Om  tat  sat  corresponds  the  Thibetan  Om  mani  padme  hSm.  In  sum, 
this  sacred  word,  adored  throughout  eastern  Asia,  fully  represents  the  continuity  of  Hindu 
religious  sentiment,  and  its  devotion  to  ideal  unity,  through  all  phases,  epochs,  and  results. 

4  Mwidaka   Upanishad,  II.  i.  10;  ii.  5. 


314  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

enjoyment  and  a  stormy  physical  energy.  The  simple 
vigorous  impulses  of  Vedic  life  were  developed  into 
physical  passions  which  it  required  all  the  finer  moral 
and  spiritual  elements  of  the  race  to  check,  and  which 
indeed  very  gradually  yielded,  even  to  the  enervating 
influences  of  climate  and  social  organization.  Yet  it 
is  reasonable  to  believe  that  a  tendency  to  mystical 
contemplation,  so  spontaneous  and  profound  as  is 
shown  in  all  the  religious  compositions  of  the  post- 
Vedic  age,  implies  a  deep  root  in  national  character, 
and  must  have  been  in  affinity  with  the  instinctive 
religious  temperament  of  the  people.  We  have  al- 
ready noted  its  germs  in  the  hymns.  In  these  there 
is  already  a  ground  of  diverse  tendency ;  many  of 
them  being  of  a  thoughtful  and  peaceful,  others  of  a 
warlike  and  even  revengeful,  nature. 

The  change  in  the  religious  sentiment  which  we  are 
now  considering  certainly  involved  a  loss  of  that  ener- 
getic, healthful  sense  of  the  real  world  and  the  present 
life,  which  belonged  to  the  Vedic  age.  It  was,  how- 
ever, effected  by  intenser  concentration  on  the  inward 
life  of  ideas  and  principles.  And  the  compensations 
thus  secured  make  the  process  an  important  one  in  the 
history  of  religion. 

The  spirituality  of  the  result  need  not  surprise  us. 
spirituality  This    religion  was  primarily  the  worship  of 

ihVe0wordsHp  Unity«        A  thirSt  t0  find  the   0lie    in    tlie    mani" 

of  unity,  fold  is  intellectual  inspiration.  We  must  re- 
member how  mysterious  a  step  in  itself  is  the  genesis 
of  the  idea  of  unity  or  wholeness.  It  is  a  step  of 
the  personality,  beyond  observation  of  facts,  beyond 
experience ;  an  intuitive  affirmation,  for  which  no  data 
of  the  senses  account.  And  the  direction  of  the  mind 
towards  it  is  the  passage  from  the  senses  to  the  spirit. 


VEDANTA.  315 

We  have  seen  how  manifest  it  is  in  the  Vedic  hymns. 
The  gods  are  universal,  their  functions  interchange- 
able. Each  absorbs  the  rest,  and  might  readily  stand 
for  the  whole.  "  Agni  is  light ;  light  is  Indra ;  the 
Sun  is  light."1  "  Aditi  is  heaven;  is  the  firmament; 
is  father,  mother,  son ;  is  all  the  gods ;  is  the  five 
orders  of  men  ;  is  generation  and  birth."  2  As  Indra 
"  contains  all  things  in  himself,  as  the  felloe  of  a  wheel 
the  spokes,"3  so  these  oldest  hymns  hold  the  later 
pantheism  itself  in  germ.  Sacrifice  itself  is  here  but 
the  circulation  of  one  divine  life  through  the  round  of 
god,  nature,  man.  It  is  said  of  the  sacrificial  plant 
that  it  contains  all  the  worlds  and  is  father  of  the 
gods.4  So  the  sacrificial  horse  assumes  the  names  of 
the  gods.5  And  the  secret  sense  of  oneness  in  all  life 
is  uttered  in  other  hymns  that  pour  forth  thoughtful 
yearnings  to  solve  the  mystery  which  enfolds  all 
things  within  and  without  in  its  shadow,  the  mystery 
of  being  itself.  For  these  yearnings  the  universe  is 
a  mystic  whole.  And  not  less  profound  and  universal 
the  answer :  — 

"  In  the  beginning  the  One  breathed  by  itself,  yet  without  breath. 
Other  than  It  there  nothing  since  has  been."6 

But  the  Rig  Veda  holds  to  Theism  also.    Aspiration 
for  the  One  is  in  fact  the  worship  of  Thought  worship  of 
itself,  and  could  leave  out  of  sight  no  function  thousht. 
of  Mind.    Thus  the  gods  are  all  creators.    There  are, 
as  we  have  seen,  hymns  in  which  deity  appears  in  all 


1  Rig  Veda.  So,  in  the  later  Greek  inscriptions,  we  read  of  Zeus  Bacchus,  Zeus  jEscu- 
lapius,  &c  Similar  compounds  are  formed  with  the  Egyptian  Ra,  as  Ammon  Ra,  Osiris 
Ra,  &c 

2  Ibid.,  I.  89,  10;  I.  164.  s  ibid.,  I.  32, 15. 
4  Ibid.,  IX.  86,  10;  109,  4.  6  Ibid.,  I.  163,  3. 
6  Rig  Veda,  X.  129. 


316  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  personality  and  energy  of  the  Hebrew  Jehovah  ; J 
hymns  in  which  creative  Mind  is  adored  as  "  God 
above  all  gods."  2  Rude  as  they  were,  these  psalmists 
had  a  profound  veneration  for  the  power  of  Thought. 
Their  constant  prayer  was  for  intelligence  ;  their  praise, 
a  distinct  recognition  of  the  creation  of  all  things  by 
mind.  The  very  name  they  gave  to  prayer  (mantra) 
had  the  same  meaning.  And  as,  in  later  times,  the 
gods  were  believed  subject  to  the  powers  wielded  by 
intense  mental  concentration,  so  prayer,  the  earliest 
form  of  such  concentration,  was  held  in  Vedic  times 
to  possess  a  similar  mastery.3  The  word  Brahma, 
probably  derived  from  the  root  brih,  meaning  upward 
movement  or  endeavor,  was  first  used  to  designate 
this  intelligent  energy  of  prayer  ; 4  and  it  was  this  very 
word  that  grew  to  be  the  highest  name  for  deity,  thus 
identifying  God  with  conscious,  efficient  Mind.  First, 
there  was  a  Lord  of  Prayer,  Brahmanaspati,  perhaps  as 
bearing  upward  the  devotion  of  the  worshipper ;  then 
the  power  of  devotion  considered  as  the  might  of  the 
gods ;  and  finally  Brahma,  the  prayer-deity,  absorbs 
them  all.  And  so  this  Name  above  all  their  names 
meant  the  divinization  of  devout  thought,  meant  intel- 
ligence in  the  unity  of  its  essence  and  the  fulness  of 
its  life. 

But  even  Brahma  was  held  amenable  to  all  deeper 
"  devotion  "  than  his  own.  For  the  worship  of  intelli- 
gence involved  from  the  first  the  right  and  power  of 

1  See  hymns  quoted  by  Maury,  Croyances  et  Legendes,  p.  120. 

2  Rig  Veda,  X.  121,  translated  by  Miiller. 

3  Rig  Veda.  I.  67,  3,  "  Prayers  uphold  the  sky."  See  Roth,  Bra/ima  und  die  Brah- 
manen,  in  Zeitsch.  d.  D.  M.  Gesellsch.,  I.  66-86. 

4  Roth,  as  above.  Brahma  (neuter)  becoming  Brahmi  (maso),  which  meant,  first,  the 
pronouncer  of  the  prayer;  whence,  later,  Brahmanas,  the  priesthood.  Haug  (Brahma 
und  die  Brakmaneu,  1871)  derives  the  word  from  vrih,  meaning  "to  grow."  The  com- 
bination of  these  two  ideas,  "  to  aspire "  and  "  to  grow,"  is  the  noblest  basis  of  the 
religious  sentiment. 


VEDANTA.  317 

man  to  change  his  ideals,  and  supply  his  faith,  not 
with  new  symbolic  forms  only,  but  with  fresh  con- 
ceptions and  names  of  deity. 

Through  the  mystical  depths  of  their  own  thought, 
following  its  intuitions  of  being  and  cause,  and  Thesearch 
yearning  to  find  those  ultimate  truths  in  which  for  essential 
it  could  rest,  the  later  speculative  students  of 
the  Veda,  many  of  whom  were  poets  also,1  pursued 
their  way.  The  typical  form  of  philosophy  to  which 
their  studies  gave  rise  is  the  Vedanta,  "  end,  or  scope, 
of  the  Veda." 

They  saw  that  behind  all  forms  of  existence  there 
was  pure  substance,  not  to  be  qualified  nor  defined,  — 
unconditional  Being,  whereof  we  can  only  say,  // 
alone  truly  and  -perfectly  is.  "  Of  all  mysteries,  I  am 
silence, "  says  the  divine  One  in  the  Bhagavadgita. 
But  there  was  a  closer  mystery  than  silence  :  a  solution 
of  all  questions,  speaking  in  all  beings  and  worlds, 
yet  escaping  every  limitation,  whether  by  name  or 
by  thought,  and  comprehended  only  in  the  breath- 
ings of  inward  aspiration.  And,  that  they  might 
not  seem  to  limit  this  "  Soul  of  All  "  by  terms  that 
suggested  human  distinctions  and  conditions,  they 
were  apt  reverently  to  speak  of  God,  or  Brahma,  in 
the  neuter ;  saying,  as  we  also  do,  "  It "  and  "  That," 
whenever  moved  by  deeper  awe;  or  "This"  rather, 

1  I  speak  here  of  the  writers  of  the  Upanishads  {lit.  Sittings) :  philosophical  poems, 
belonging,  according  to  Miiller,  Lassen,  and  other  high  authorities,  to  the  fifth,  sixth, 
and  seventh  centuries  before  Christ.  A  list  of  these  poems,  149  in  number,  is  given 
by  Miiller  in  the  Journal  of  the  German  Oriental  Society  for  1865,  and  an  analysis  of  the 
more  important  in  Weber's  Indiscke  Studien.  In  preparing  these  chapters  on  Hindu 
philosophy,  I  have  used  translations  of  the  principal  Upanishads  by  Rber  and  Weber ;  the 
Sutras  of  Kapila,  by  Ballantyne ;  and  the  Bhagavadgita,  by  Lassen,  Wilkins,  and  Thom- 
son. For  the  VedSnta,  or  Uttara  Mimansa  philosophy,  the  authorities  are  the  Brahma- 
Sutras,  ascribed  to  Vyasa,  of  which  an  account  is  given  by  Colebrooke,  Essays,  vol.  i., 
and  the  Upanishads. 


3l8  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

when  the  awe  deepened  into  a  recognition  of  natural 
intimacy  or  even  inseparable  union ;  plainly  meaning 
therefore  by  the  neuter  not  an  emptiness,  but  a  fulness  ; 
not  neuter  as  by  death,  but  as  by  life ;  not  as  lowest 
gender,  but  as  making  gender  trivial  through  that 
which  transcends  generation,  the  essential  ground  of 
personality  itself.  "  The  truth  of  truth  ;  "  1  "  The  Un- 
manifested  One  ;  "  2  "  Greater  than  what  is  great ;  "  3 
"  Higher  than  thought ;  " 4  "  Different  from  what  is 
known,  beyond  what  is  not  known  ;  "  5  "  More  distant 
than  what  is  distant,  yet  near,  in  the  very  heart ; "  6 
"Unknown  to  those  who  think  to  know,  though  verily 
ear  of  the  ear,  eye  of  the  eye,  mind  of  the  mind, 
speech  of  speech,  life  of  life,"7  —  such  the  negation  of 
every  possible  limit,  by  which  they  sought  to  express 
the  necessity  of  Absolute  Being,  as  condition  of  all  be- 
lieving and  all  thinking.  Nor  did  they  fail  to  put  this 
negation  strongly,  at  some  points,  as  later  philosophy 
has  done,  and  to  declare  that  "  Not-being"  (asat)  was 
the  ground  of  Being  (sat)  ; 8  a  formula  which  then 
meant,  as  it  now  means,  simply  the  eternal  need  of  a 
deeper  foundation  for  thought  than  any  definite  specific 
forms  of  thinking ;  and  for  being,  than  the  limited 
modes  under  which  we  conceive  it.  The  neuter 
Brahma  meant  reality  itself,  that  which  makes  all 
existences  contain  more  than  comes  and  goes.  It 
must  be  interpreted  by  such  sentences  as  these  :  "  The 
highest  Brahmana  of  the  wise  is  the  Right,  the  Ti'ue. 
Through  Truth  the  wind  blows,  the  sun  shines. 
Truth  is  the  support  of  speech.     By  it  the  universe  is 

1  Brikad  Upanishad,  II.  ii.  20.  2  Manu,  XII.  50. 

3  Mundaka  Up.,  II.  i.  2.  *  Mitri  Up.  (in  Weber's  Ind.  Stud.,  I.  273). 

»  Kena  Up.,  I.  3.  8  Mundaka  Up.,  III.  i.  7. 

7  Kena  Up.,  II.  3;  I.  2. 

8  Chandogya  Up.,  VI.  1.     So  Rig  Veda,  X.  72,  2. 


VEDANTA. 


319 


upheld.  It  is  highest  of  all." 1  n  Falsehood  is  encom- 
passed by  Truth.  It  harms  not  him  who  knoweth 
this."2  "The  eternal  world  is  theirs,  in  whom  is  no 
crookedness,  no  delusion,  no  lie."2 

One  Absolute  Reality  ;  unchangeableness  of  Truth  ; 
imperishableness  of  Substance,  —  this  was  what  these 
mystical  half-poets,  half-philosophers,  would  affirm ; 
this  was  what  they  breathed  silently  in  the  sacred 
syllable  Om  :  whereof  they  said  that  "  it  contained  all 
the  gods,"3  and  that  "as  the  palasa  leaf  is  supported 
by  a  single  pedicel,  so  the  universe  by  Om." 4  This  was 
what  they  spoke  aloud  in  the  neuter  "Tad,"  or  That. 
"Into  That  (One)  all  This  (Universe)  enters,  out  of 
That  it  beams.  That  is  what  was  and  shall  be."  5 
It  was  what  they  meant  by  saying,  "The  indestruc- 
tible One  is  verily  without  form,  or  life,  or  mind,  or 
origin,  self-existent  spirit."6  "There  is  another  name, 
different  from  the  definition,  'He  is  not  this,  He  is 
not  that,'  —  namely,  the  truth  of  Truth."  7 

"  I  am  that  I  am."  This  was  the  highest  Hebrew 
affirmation  of  deity.      "I  am  that  which   is: 

.  The  absolute 

no  mortal  hath  lifted  my  veil,"  —  this  was  in  different 
the  Egyptian.  "Essence,  To  w,"  — this  thefaiths' 
Greek.  "The  way  of  Nature  and  Reason,"  —  this 
the  Chinese.  "  Substance  ;  the  Real ;  the  Absolute," 
—  this  the  ultimate  of  our  Western  religious  thought. 
And  all  these  alike  reach  behind  individual  forms  of 
deity,  to  the  ground  of  being  itself.  Thus  the  neuter 
Brahma  has  lived  on,  repeated  under  different  forms 
through  the  ages ;  for  without  a  basis  in  that  which 
must  be,  and  which  no  special  will  can  change  nor 

1  Mahanar&yana  Up.  (Weber,  II.  80-95). 

2  Brihad  Up.,  V.  v. ;  Prasna  Up.,  I.  16  3  Nirukta. 

1  Yajnavalkya:  cited  by  Colebrooke,  (I-  130)-  6  JCatha  Up  ,  IV.  9. 

8  Mund-  Up-,  II.  i.  2.  7  Brihad.,  II.  iii.  6. 


320  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

control,  there  is  not  only  no  ethical  sanction  nor 
conviction,  but  no  proper  sense  of  life  itself  as  real. 

The  Vedantist  concentrated  his  thought  on  this  idea 
of  pure  substance,  to  some  detriment  of  the  rights  of  hu- 
man personality.  A  tendency  to  this  is  apparent  even 
in  the  interchangeableness  of  the  Vedic  deities ;  their 
lack  of  individuality ;  their  flow  into  each  other,  like 
waves  of  a  sea.  It  is  matured  in  the  pantheism  of  the 
Upanishads,  where  the  individual  fades  into  the  One  ; 
and  in  the  doctrine  of  Transmigration,  which  floats 
him  away  on  tides  of  manifold  unremembered  lives 
and  overmastering  retributions.  This  failure  of  the 
right  of  personality,  with  all  its  melancholy  conse- 
quences in  the  later  institutions  of  the  Hindus,  was 
due  not  to  the  idea  of  one  absolute  substance,  but  to 
the  lack  of  qualities  requisite  to  balance  their  devotion 
to  it,  and  bring  adequate  respect  for  persistence  in 
definite  forms  of  being  and  action.  Nor  must  we  fail 
to  note  that  these  contemplative  men  were  moved  by  a 
profound  sense  of  the  necessity  of  freeing  their  con- 
ception of  the  divine  substance  of  truth  and  right  from 
all  contingency  on  human  passions  and  desires,  from 
the  limits  which  beset  all  individualities,  from  the  very 
possibility  of  its  sinking  into  a  creature  of  caprice. 
Did  they  in  this  wholly  forget  the  truth  of  personality  ? 
Did  they  not  pursue  that  on  which  personality  most 
depends?  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  as  ap- 
plied to  God  or  to  man?  Here  our  Hindu  mystics 
deserve  attention. 

All  special  forms  under  which  deity  is  ordinarily 

conceived  as  "  personal  "  are  so  many  expres- 

andimper-   sions  of  individualism,  and  so  of  exclusion  and 

sonal"         limit.     Even  for  the  moment  they  content  us 

only  because  subtly  identified  by  us  with  the  real  in- 


VEDANTA.  321 

definable  Infinite  beyond  them,  which  involves  person- 
ality indeed,  but  in  an  unlimited  sense  of  the  word, 
transcending  all  specific  forms  of  perception  and  voli- 
tion. In  other  words,  such  limitary  personal,  or 
rather  individual,  deity  is  endurable  to  thought,  only 
through  tacit  reference  of  it  to  unconditional  Being, 
as  a  deeper  ground.  As  of  divine  men  we  know  that 
it  is  by  partaking  of  the  essential  nature  of  truth, 
goodness,  and  right,  that  they  are  divine,  and  that 
their  personality  stands  in  these,  —  so  of  all  we  may 
ascribe  to  God,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  this  or  that 
divine  manifestation  is  not  right  and  true  because  God 
wills  it,  but  that  God  wills  it,  —  or,  rather,  it  is  in  and 
of  God,  because  it  is  right  and  true.  "  Even  deity  is 
divine,"  says  Plato,  "by  the  contemplation  of  truth."1 
It  is  this  final  appeal  to  the  Absolute  that  must  off- 
set a  certain  intense  idolatry  of  specific  volition  and 
purpose  which  seems  inherent  in  Christianity,  and  is 
mainly  derived  from  its  Semitic  origin.  The  gods 
of  Greece  were  themselves  subject  to  the  Oath  :  if 
they  broke  into  its  sanctuary  of  truth,  they  ceased  to 
be  gods.  And  so.  our  reverence  for  deity  demands 
that  what  is  personal  rest  on  what  is  impersonal ;  not 
in  the  sense  of  unintelligent,  or  «0«-personal,  but  of 
universal  and  substantial ;  being  held  divine,  only  as 
identified  with  principle  and  with  essence.  It  will 
escape  the  illusion  of  imagining  that  the  Absolute  is 
empty,  is  nothing ;  and  going  behind  such  specific 
forms  of  individuated  being  and  will  as  may,  tradition- 
ally or  directly,  be  set  before  it  as  God,  affirm  what 
transcends  them  all,  that  Truth,  Right,  Intelligence,  in 
their  substance,  are  God ;  recognizing  also  that  every 

1  Phadrus,  c.  62. 
21 


322  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

one's  real  personality,  his  vital,  enduring  reality,  rests 
on  his  participation  in  these. 

Our  contemplative  Hindus,  it  is  easy  to  see,  were 
so  fascinated  by  the  idea  of  the  infinite,  that 

Failure  on  ,  .  . 

the  finite  they  failed  of  justice  to  the  rights  of  the  finite. 
side.  Their  introversion  lacked  the  balancing  force 

of  scientific  and  social  interests  which  other  races  and 
climes  were  to  supply.  Both  Semitic  and  Aryan  re- 
ligions, on  the  other  hand,  have  emphasized  conscious 
self-assertion  in  limited  forms  of  forethought  and  plan, 
as  the  very  life  of  God ;  while  the  practical  relations 
and  aims  of  these  energetic  races  have  brought  out 
the  corresponding  element  in  the  life  of  man ;  so 
that  they  have  now  intense  faith  in  an  exact  opposite 
to  the  Oriental  ideal. 

This  intense  will-worship  and  work- worship  is, 
East  and  however,  as  one-sided  as  the  extravagance 
west.  0f  the  Hindu  in  the  other  direction.  His 
Mimansas  and  Upanishads  will  at  least  admonish 
us  that,  under  conditions  most  unfavorable  to  ener- 
getic moral  life,  men  have  thoroughly  believed  in 
an  inherent  right  of  truth  as  truth,  as  the  sub- 
stance of  the  world,  to  claim  unlimited  devotion; 
that  they  have  believed  in  a  reality  beyond  phenom- 
ena, a  meaning  for  the  conscience  and  the  heart 
in  what  we  cannot  trace  or  define,  compared  to 
which  rites,  dogmas,  traditions,  expediencies,  inter- 
ests, will  of  masses,  personal  profit  or  personal  idola- 
tries, even  life  and  all  the  worlds,  were  held  shadowy 
and  transient ;  and  that  they  committed  themselves  to 
this  as  the  substance  of  their  own  being.  Our  mod- 
ern practical  ideal  is  yet  to  be  debtor  to  this  Oriental 
dream.     We  do  not  disparage  our  civilization  when 


VEDANTA.  323 

we  point  out  its  actual  defects.  Palpable  signs  of  its 
extreme  need  of  the  contemplative  element  appear, 
practically,  in  the  dissipation  of  mind  and  morals  by 
our  vast  material  interests  and  competitions,  and  theo- 
logically in  that  utter  dependence  on  the  efficacy  of  a 
single  body  of  ideal  personal  traditions  and  symbols, 
which  has  passed  for  the  substance  of  saving  faith. 
The  remedy  for  both  of  these  is  in  larger  experience 
of  the  universalities  of  abstract  thought.  Eastern 
philosophy  cannot  teach  us  special  ethics ;  but  it 
brings  into  our  view  an  unbounded  faith  in  the  reality 
of  the  absolute  and  eternal  as  perceived  by  thought. 
To  forsake  all  dread  of  "  abstractions,"  to  cease  re- 
garding ideals  as  empty  words,  to  become  realists 
for  these  instead  of  nominalists,  is  as  esserftial  for  the 
recognition  of  principles  —  truth,  justice,  humanity  — 
in  their  clearness  and  power,  as  the  spirit  of  love  is 
to  their  application ;  a  truth  which  the  popular  re- 
ligion, in  our  day,  stands  greatly  in  need  of  embody- 
ing in  its  doctrine.  That  our  practical  resources  are 
so  vast,  calls  for  all  the  greater  clearness  of  conviction, 
breadth  of  idea,  liberty  and  self-respect,  in  order  to 
the  discovery  of  their  real  uses.  And  the  first  con- 
dition is  that  the  abstract  become  intensely  real ;  the 
impersonal,  sacred  ;  truth,  its  own  authority.  This  is 
our  guarantee  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  progress. 

"  Nowhere,"  says  Quinet,  "  has  there  been  made 
such  lofty  and  solemn  affirmation  of  the  rights  Brahma  as 
of  essential  beincj  as  in  India." '  soul- 

The  faith  of  these  dreamers  was  in  no  unreality,  in 
no  mere  dead  substratum  of  formulas  and  words  ;  the 
very  opposite.  The  ultimate  of  their  thought  was 
"Soul."     This  is  their  sacred,  central,  ever-recurring, 

1  Genie  des  Religions,  p.  133. 


324  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

final  word.  The  same  terms,  dtman,  -purtisha,  which 
expressed  the  spiritual  essence  in  man,  were  carried  up 
to  the  deeps  of  Infinite  Being,  to  affirm  there  also 
what  we  mean  by  life,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  Mind.1 
The  Brahma  Sutras,  or  special  Vedanta  aphorisms,  are 
careful  to  prove,  against  the  supposed  negations  of  the 
Sankhya,  that  deity  is  mind,  "the  omnipotent,  om- 
niscient, sentient  cause."2  The  Bhagavadgita  speaks 
of  the  "eternal  person;"3  the  Upanishads,  of  the 
"  light  which  shines  everywhere,  seen  within  the  solar 
orb  and  the  human  eye,  in  heaven  and  throughout  the 
world,  intelligent,  immortal,  and  for  ever  blest."2 

The  whole  aim  of  the  Brihad  Upanishad  is  to  teach 
that  Life  is  the  substance  of  all  things  and  master  of 
death  :  — 

"  Life  is  verily  oldest  and  best." 

"  The  sun  rises  out  of  life  and  sets  into  life  ;  this  the  sacred  law  ; 

it  sways  to-day  and  will  sway  to-morrow." 

"  Life  is  the  Immortal  One,  names  and  forms  but  conceal  this." 
"  Unseen,  He  sees  ;  unheard,  He  hears  ;    unknown,  He  knows." 
"  Life  is  preserver  of  all  forms  ;  by  life  the  universe  is  sustained." 
"  Life  is  the  soul  of  the  whole,  is  all  the  gods  ;  so  that  it  is  not 

fit  to  say,  '  sacrifice  to  this,  to  the  other,  god.' " 

"  As  by  footprints  one  finds  cattle,  so  by  soul  one  knows  all 

things." 

"  Soul  is  the  lord  and  king  of  all  ;  as  the  spokes  in  the  nave,  so 

all  worlds  and  souls  are  fastened  in  the  One  Soul."  * 

"  Life  (Prajapati)  has  sway  over  all  in  earth  and  heaven.  As  a 
mother  her  children,  protect  us,  grant  us  prosperity  and  wisdom." 5 

1  "Atman"  —  probably  derived  from  ah,  "to  breathe"  (German,  athem),  or  else 
"to  think"  —  meant  life,  and  was  used  to  designate  Soul,  both  individual  and  universal: 
it  was  the  Self,  the  Ego,  being  even  familiarly  used  as  the  first  person.  See  Miiller,  Sansk. 
Lit.,  p.  21      Fick's  Worterb.,  p.  690.     Eichhoff  derives  it  from  at,  "to  move." 

2  Colebrooke's  Analysis  of  these  Sutras,  Essays,  I.  338. 

8  Schlegel  translates  it  numeri.  Other  designations  of  deity  are  "Oversoul"  and 
"  Overworld."  See,  also,  Thomson's  Bhagavadgita,  ch.  viii.  n.  1,  on  punisha.  The 
Surya  Siddhdnta  (XII.  12)  is  to  similar  effect. 

4  Brihad  Uf>an.,  VI.  1,1;  I.  v.  23 ;  I.  vi.  3  ;  I.  iii  ;  I.  iv  ;  I.  iv,  7  ;  II.  v,  15. 

5  Pras'tia  Upan.,  II.  13. 


VEDANTA.  325 

"  He  does  not  move,  yet  is  swifter  than  thought :  never  have 
these  gods,  the  senses,  obtained  him.  He  was  gone  before.  In 
His  rest  He  outstrips  them.  He  is  far,  yet  also  near.  He  is  within 
this  All,  yet  beyond  it."1 

"  As  birds  repair  to  a  tree  to  dwell  there,  so  the  world  repairs  to 
the  Supreme." 2 

"  He  is  creator,  and  all  that  moves  or  breathes  or  sleeps  is 
founded  in  him ;  and  He  is  their  goal ;  indestructible  life  and 
mind."3 

The  ideas  of  Absolute  Reality  and  Infinite  Mind,  of 
Substance  and  Thought,  are  here  reconciled.  Intelli- 
gence and  its  unknown  basis  in  the  nature  of  Being 
are  alike  held  fast  as  essential  elements  of  deity. 

Greek  Plotinus  said  that  the  One  could  not  dwell 
alone,  but  must  for  ever  bring  forth  souls  from  himself. 

Not  less  were  love  and  desire  affirmed   to  be  stir- 
ring these  deeps  of  Oriental  deity :  the  long-  Manifest*- 
ing  to  go  out  of  self,  the  impulse  to  sacrifice  ?on  thTgh 

00  r  Love  and 

the  absolute  for  the  phenomenal,  unity  for  Desire, 
manifold  life,  is  there.4  The  Hindu  Kama,  like  the 
Orphic  Eros,  is  primal  impulse  to  creation.  A  Veda 
hymn  says  of  the  self-existent :  "  Then  first  came 
love  upon  it,  the  new  spring  of  mind." 5  And  one 
of  the  Upanishads  puts  it  thus  :  "  The  supreme  Soul 
desired,  'Let  me  become  many,'  and  performing  holy 
work  created  all  things."6  Another  speaks  of  his 
"  love  "  as  "  all-embracing." 7  "  The  Self-existent  said 
within  himself,  '  In  austerity  is  not  infinity.  Let  me 
sacrifice  myself  in  all  created  things.'"8  The  end- 
less theme  of  the  Vedanta  philosophy  is  the  production 

1  Vajasaneya  San/i.  Upan.,  4,  5.  *  Prasna,  IV. 

3  Mundaka  Upan.,  II.  ii.  1,  2. 

4  Ritter,  Hist.  Philos-,  II.  ch.  2  ;  Sankara's  Comment-  on  Brihad,  I.  4. 

6  Rig  Veda,  X.  129 ;  Miiller's  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  564.  8  Taittariya,  II.  6. 

7  Amritanada  Upan-,  Weber,  II.  62.  8  Satapatha  Brahmana,  Muir,  IV.  25. 


326  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  all  life,  of  mind,  the  elements,  the  worlds,  the 
sexes,  and  the  races,  from  the  indestructible  One.1 
K  Prajapati  causes  his  life  to  be  divided,  not  content 
to  be  alone."2 

But  not  even  as  products,  distinctly  as  they  were 
recognized  as  such,  could  phenomena  be  separated 
from  that  spiritual  substance,  whose  universality  was 
the  most  impressive  of  facts  to  the  mystical  sense. 

"  Immortal  Brahma  is  before,  behind ;  above,  below ;  to  right 
and  left ;  all  pervading  :   Brahma  is  this  All,  this  infinite  world.'1 3 

"  Whoever  looks  for  world,  or  gods,  or  beings,  elsewhere  than  in 
the  one  divine  Soul,  should  be  abandoned  by  them.  To  know  this 
is  to  know  all."  4 

"  The  sea  is  one  and  not  other  than  its  waters,  though  waves, 
foam,  spray,  differ  from  each  other." 

"An  effect  is  not  other  than  its  cause  :  Brahma  is  single  without 
a  second.  He  is  not  separate  from  the  embodied  self.  He  is  Soul, 
and  the  soul  is  he." 5 

To  this  absorbing  sense  of  the  Unity  of  Life  in  its 
essence,  forms  and  existences  are  but  as  mists 

The  form  re- 
turns into  rising  from  the  sea,  and  returning  in  rain; 
issence.  y^^  wmcjs  formed  in  the  atmosphere  and  dying 
again  into  its  stillness ;  not  changing  in  nature,  but 
only  in  form  ;  the  mists  are  still  water,  the  winds  are 
air. 

According  to  Manu,  "The  Self-existent  created  the 
waters  ■  by  a  thought ;  and  moving  on  the  deep,  as 
Narayana,  the  Spirit,  placed  therein  a  seed,  or  egg  ; 6 
from  which  He  is  himself  born  as  Brahma,  who 
again  reproduces  himself  as  Mind,  by  whose  devotion 


1  Mutidaka,  II.  i.  ;  Brtfiad,  II.  i.  20.  2  BriJuid,  I.  iv. 

3  Mundaka,  II.  ii.  11.  4  Brikad,  II.  iv. 

6  Colebrooke's  Analysis  of  the  Brahma  Sutras,  Essays,  I.  351. 

0  In  the  Orphic  also,  as  in  most  other  early  cosmogenic  systems,  the  egg  is  the  natura 
symbol  of  production  or  evolution. 


VEDANTA.  327 

all  things  are  created  from  the  bosom  of  the  Su- 
preme.1 Here  is  the  circle  :  creation,  or  rather  evolu- 
tion of  forms,  is  but  an  endless  transmutation  within 
it;  in  substance,  all  things  are  the  same.  "The 
circle  of  being,"  says  Yajnavalkya,  "revolves  with- 
out beginning  or  end."2  Says  the  beautiful  Katha 
Upanishad  :  — 

"  The  world  is  like  an  eternal  holy  fig-tree,  whose  roots  are  above, 
whose  branches  descend.  In  Brahma  all  worlds  repose.  None 
becomes  different  from  this,  their  root.  The  universe  trembles 
with  awe,  moving  within  this,  its  supreme  life."  3 

When  there  is  no  longer  any  sense  of  separation 
from  this  divine  Whole,  nor  of  difference  from   „„ . 

All  in  God. 

the  common  ground  and  substance  of  all  forms, 
—  in  other  words,  when  the  soul  loses  itself  in  the 
mystery  of  being,  one  and  the  same  for  all  times  and 
persons  and  things  that  are,  and  knows  that  this  un- 
searchable depth  is  life  and  mind, — then  is  reached 
the  goal  of  all  its  striving.  The  wonder  and  joy  it 
feels  in  this  participation  is  called  by  the  Taittariya 
"the  song  of  universal  unity."4 

"  As  speech  is  common  to  all  names,  the  eye  to  all  perception 
of  things,  and  to  all  actions  an  agent,  so  for  all  souls  is  there  iden- 
tity of  spiritual  essence.     This  is  their  Brahma."  b 

"  The  same  that  is  here  is  there  also.  The  same  that  is  there 
is  here.  He  is  but  passing  from  death  to  death  who  sees  differ- 
ence in  Brahma." 

"  This  Soul  of  all  is  to-day,  will  be  to-morrow.  As  water  run- 
ning off  into  valleys  is  scattered  and  lost,  so  do  men  run  after  differ- 
ences, beholding  attributes  as  apart  from  this.  But  the  soul  of  the 
wise,  who  knows  what  is  the  same,  is  like  pure  water  on  the  ground 
that  remains  in  its  place,  alike  and  undispersed."6 


1  Manu,  I.  8-18.     So  the  Surya  Sidd/ianta,  XII.        2  Yajnavalkya,  III.  124. 
8  Katha,  VI.  1,  2.  *  Taittar.,  III.  x.  5. 

6  Brihad,  I.  vi.  8.  6  Katlia,  IV.  10,  13,  14. 


328  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

"  He  who,  dwelling  in  all  elements  and  forms  and  knowledge, 
whom  they  do  not  know,  whose  body  they  are,  who  from  within 
rules  them,  —  He  is  thy  soul,  the  inner  ruler,  immortal.  There  is 
none  that  hears  or  knows,  but  him.  Whatever  is  apart  from  him 
comes  to  nought." ' 

Yet  it  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  spiritual  pantheism 
Human  in-  is  inconsistent  with  belief  in  individual  exist- 
dividuaihy.  ences.  It  simply  regards  them  as  one  in 
spiritual  essence,  the  ultimate  common  nature  of 
human  and  divine ;  and  holds  that  they  have  no 
real  being  independent  of  Infinite  Spirit,  which  must 
for  ever  be  One.  The  Vedanta  abolishes  distinctions 
in  deity  only,  as  the  ideal  of  devout  aspiration,  and  as 
that  ground  of  reality  which  must  be  one  and  the  same 
for  all. 

Nor  does  deity,  thus  conceived,  become  the  mere  to- 
Divine  tran- tality  of  these  distinctions,  nor  yet  their  mere 
scendence.  identity.  Brahma  transcends  all  definite  fac- 
tors that  can  be  summed  up,  as  finite  addition  can 
never  reach  infinity,  nor  even  approach  it.  He 
absorbs  all,  yet  transcends  all ;  and  this  not  only  as 
the  infinite,  but  as  the  One. 

If  we  observe  our  own  mental  processes,  we  shall 
find  that  we  do  not  conceive  unity  as  a  mere  sum  of 
component  parts.  Always  it  appears  as  a  different 
and  higher  fact.  The  orchestral  chord  is  more  than 
the  sum  of  those  tones  which  blend  in  it ;  the  roar  of 
the  sea  than  the  wave-plashes  it  gathers  into  one ;  the 
articulate  word  of  history  than  the  mere  successive 
syllables  of  the  ages  or  races.  The  very  spark  is 
more  than  flint  added  to  steel ;  the  salt  than  acid  mixed 
with  base.  So  Brahma  as  the  Whole  must  mean  more 
than  the  aggregate.     The  One  has  not  the  limitations 

1  Brihad,  III.  vii.     "  Soul  is  uncreate  and  immortal "  (Plato,  Phcedr.  c.  S3). 


VEDANTA.  329 

of  the  parts.  It  absorbs  them,  but  it  rules  them  and 
lifts  them  into  higher  meaning.  And  this  is  as  fully 
recognized  by  the  Vedantists  as  the  non-difference  of 
the  soul  from  the  Supreme. 

Again  let  us  hear  the  Katha  Upanishad  :  — 

"  Upon  Him  all  the  worlds  are  founded  ;  none  becomes  different 
from  him.  Yet  as  the  one  sun,  eye  of  the  world,  is  not  sullied  by 
the  defects  of  the  eye  or  the  world,  so  the  Soul  of  all  beings  is  not 
sullied  by  the  evils  of  the  world,  because  it  is  also  without  it. 
Being  of  every  nature  to  every  nature,  the  One  Soul  is  also 
without  them,  in  its  own."  ' 

"  Make  known  to  me  the  Being  different  from  this  whole  of 
causes  and  effects,  past,  present,  and  future."  2 

"  They  who  know  Brahma  in  this  universe  as  different  from  it 
become  free."  3 

"  The  soul,  immersed  in  things,  is  wretched  in  its  helplessness  : 
when  it  sees  the  supreme  Soul  as  different  from  these,  and  His 
glory,  its  grief  ceases."  * 

Both  aspects  are  blended  in  the  "  divine  wisdom  " 
of  the  Bhagavadgita  :  — 

"The  Supreme  Soul  is  without  beginning;  not  to  be  called 
existent  or  non-existent  ;  possessing  every  sense,  yet  separate  from 
them  all ;  apart  from,  and  yet  within  all ;  both  far  and  near ;  not 
divided  among  beings,  yet  as  if  it  were"  5 

"  Behold  this  my  kingly  mystery.  All  things  exist  in  me.  My 
spirit  which  has  caused  them  sustains  them,  yet  does  not  dwell 
(confined)  in  them.  Everywhere  I  am  present  in  manifold  forms, 
by  reason  of  being  single  and  separable  from  them." 

"  I  am  the  sacrifice,  the  fire,  the  incense.  I  am  the  father,  the 
mother  of  this  universe  ;  the  mystic  doctrine,  the  syllable  Om,  the 
Vedas  ;  the  path,  the  support,  the  master,  the  witness,  the  habita- 
tion, the  refuge,  the  friend ;  origin,  and  dissolution,  and  inexhaus- 
tible seed.  I  am  ambrosia,  and  death  ;  what  exists  and  what  exists 
not ;  the  soul,  in  the  heart  of  all  beings  ;  beginning,  middle,  and 
end."  6 

1  Katha,  V.  8-n.        2  Ibid.,  II.  14.        3  Svetasvatara  Up.,  I.  7.        i  Ibid.,  IV.  7. 

5  Bliag.   Gita,  ch.  xiii.    This  poem  is  not  a  Upanishad,  nor  purely  Vedantic ;  yet  it 
follows  our  present  line  of  thought. 

6  Ibid.,  IX.  X. 


33°  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

What  is  here  meant  is  not  the  mere  indifference  of 
all  things,  but  their  ideal;  since  the  "  Holy  One  "  also 
declares  himself  to  be  the  Best  in  each  form  and  kind. 

"Among  lights,  I  am  the  sun  ;  among  mountains,  Meru  ;  among 
waters,  the  ocean  ;  among  words,  the  monosyllable  Om  ;  among 
forms  of  worship,  silent  worship  ;  among  letters,  A  ;  among  sea- 
sons, the  spring  ;  splendor  itself  among  things  that  shine  ;  silence, 
among  mysteries  ;  the  goodness  of  the  good,  the  knowledge  of  the 
wise. " 

He  continues  :  — 

"  I  have  made  and  still  uphold  this  universe  by  one  portion  of 
myself." ' 

So  in  the  "  Hymn  of  Purusha,"  where  the  Supreme 
is  described  as  sacrificing  himself  for  the  creation  and 
support  of  all  worlds,  it  is  said  :  — 

"  But  Purusha  (the  spirit),  who  is  all  that  was,  is,  or  shall  be,  is 
above  this  all.  The  creation  is  but  the  quarter  of  his  being :  the 
other  three  parts  are  eternal  in  the  heavens.  Ascending  with  these 
three  parts,  He  is  above  and  beyond  the  world  :  the  fourth  part 
remains  below  to  be  born  and  die  by  turns."2 

A  later  treatise,  not  Vedantic,  shows  how  the  divine 
could  be  conceived  as  one  with  the  world,  and  yet 
above  it :  — 

"  As  sound  in  tunes,  as  fruit  in  its  flavors,  as  oil  in  sesame-seed, 
so  God  exists  in  the  world,  yet  in  such  wise  that  He  may  be  sepa- 
rated from  it.  He  remains  unchanged  in  all  his  works,  just  as  the 
sun  does,  while  flowers  open  and  shut  in  its  presence." 3 

Such  is  the  transcendence  to  all  forms  and  worlds 
here  affirmed  of  immanent  Mind.  In  this  oneness 
with  the  conceivable  universe,  it  is  not  forgotten  that 
there  must  also  be  exaltation  above  it,  unfathomed 
life  beyond. 

*  Bhag.  Git  a,  ch.  x 

2  Burnouf's  translation,  in  Introd.  to  Bhagavata  Purana. 

8  Siva  Gnan  Pot/iam,  in  A  rner.    Oriental  Journal,  vol.  iv. 


VEDANTA.  331 

For  such  absorbed  contemplation  of  the  Absolute 
and  One,  all  sense  of  limit  ceased;  the  finite  Thesenseof 
self  was  felt  no  more;  the  infinite  of  thought  absorption, 
extinguished  its  claims.  There  was  still  atma,  a  self; 
but  not  the  private,  individual  interest  that  bore  the 
name.  Relative,  conditional  existence  was  merged 
in  the  spiritual  essence,  felt  as  All  in  all,  the  one  in- 
clusive constitutive  principle,  by  and  through  which 
the  sense  of  being  was  possible.  "  I  distinguish  not 
myself,"  says  the  disciple  of  unity,  "  from  this  whole." 
To  soul  all  has  become  soul ;  mind  has  recognized 
its  identity  with  the  universal  force,  the  primal,  per- 
vasive, and  ultimate  reason  of  all  existence.  How 
should  it  speak  of  any  form  of  mind  as  apart  from 
this,  which  is  the  substance  of  Mind?  "  How,"  asks 
the  Brihad,  "  should  one  know  [as  an  intrinsically 
separate  object]  Him  by  whom  he  knows?"1  "The 
eye  cannot  see  itself.  How  can  we  see  the  soul  which 
enables  us  to  see?"2 

It  lies  in  the  direct  line  of  present  scientific  tendency 
that  we  should  come  to  recognize  the  unity  The  unity  of 
of  mind,  by  observing  that  all  phenomena  are  mind- 
differing  expressions  of  one  Force,  which  can  be 
no  other  than  Thought.  The  correlation  of  physical 
forces  is  pushed  forward  and  upward,  in  the  hope  of 
including  that  which  in  fact  contains  and  conditions 
them  all ;  but  the  result  can  only  be  demonstration, 
even  to  the  understanding,  that  molecule  and  proto- 
plasm cannot  dispense  with  intelligence,  and  that  all 
cosmical  forces  are  identical  with  mind. 

Meanwhile,  as  we  are  now  indicating  in  Oriental 
thought,  intuition  and  contemplation  are  beforehand 
with  science,  and  reach  the  result  from  a  side  which 

1  Brihad,  II.  iv.  14.  *  Siva  Gridu  Potliam. 


332  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

precludes  materialism.  Speculation  and  sentiment 
have  thus  foreshown  the  steps  of  experience  through- 
out human  history.  Man  is  divinely  prescient  of  his 
infinity  as  mind,  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  meditate  and 
aspire. 

Let  us  do  justice  to  this  dream  that  drew  the  Hindu 
seers  upward  through  their  morning  twilight,  before 
the  day  of  science  and  free  intercourse  of  nations 
could  rise  upon  the  East.  That  twilight  was  cheered 
by  rays  which  are  somewhat  intercepted  in  our  West- 
ern spectrum  thus  far,  and  which  they  may  help  us  to 
bring  out. 

"  I  distinguish  not  myself  from  the  whole."  This 
The  gift  of  is  n°t  analysis;  it  is  not  science.  Quite  as  lit— 
the  East.  tje  is  [t  Hebrew  fear,  or  Christian  prayer,  or 
Greek  self-assertion,  or  modern  self-dissection.  It  is 
not  philosophy  as  the  clear,  cold  understanding  defines 
the  term ;  nor  piety  in  the  sense  of  a  worship  of  defi- 
nite will,  which  knows  a  present  deity  only  as  one 
who  may  be  absent.  But  it  is  the  eternal  poet,  child, 
saint,  lover,  in  man.  It  is  the  loss  of  self  in  the 
infinite  of  aspiration  and  faith.  It  is  the  free  flow 
of  our  life  into  the  grander  life  it  sees  and  loves. 
The  voice  of  the  Eternal,  alone  heard,  takes  up  the 
human  into  itself,  and  the  poet's  tongue  can  but  echo 
its  words :  — 

"  I  am  what  is  and  is  not.     I  am,  —  if  thou  dost  know  it, 
Say  it,  O  Jellaleddin,  —  I  am  the  Soul  in  all." 

Is  not  man  of  one  nature  with  what  he  worships? 
Knowing  Where  his  faith  reposes,  there  and  that  is  he. 
and  being.  g0  these  Eastern  mystics  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  :  "  Whoso  worships  God  under  the  thought,  f  He 
is    the    foundation,'    becomes    founded ;     under    the 


VEDANTA.  333 

thought,  '  He  is  great,'  becomes  great ;  or  under  the 
thought,  'He  is  mind,'  becomes  wise."1  "Whoever 
thus  knows  the  supreme  Brahma  becomes  even 
Brahma."2  It  is  only  the  prevalent  habit  of  associat- 
ing self-assertion  with  whatsoever  is  said  or  done,  that 
makes  language  like  this,  in  any  religion,  shock  and 
repel.  It  is  perfectly  natural  to  the  poetic  sense, 
to  the  spiritual  imagination,  to  the  spontaneity  of 
faith  and  the  self-surrender  of  love.  It  is  not  "  self- 
deification,"  but  that  very  spirit  by  which  alone,  in 
any  age  or  people,  the  vice  of'self-worship  is  to  be 
escaped. 

Not  yet  have  we  heard  any  better  statement  of  the 
relation  of  individual  to  universal  life  than  this  :  — 

"  Round  and  round,  within  a  wheel,  roams  the  vagrant  soul,  so 
long  as  it  fancies  itself  different  and  apart  from  the  Supreme.  It 
becomes  truly  immortal,  when  upheld  by  him."  3 

"  As  oil  in  sesame  seed  is  found  by  pressure,  as  water  by  digging 
the  earth,  as  fire  in  the  two  pieces  of  wood  by  rubbing  them  together, 
so  is  that  absolute  Soul  found  by  one  within  his  own  soul,  through 
truth  and  discipline  alone."4 

"  The  soul  must  churn  the  truth  patiently  out  of  every  thing."  5 

The  poet  does  not  forget  that  this  is  the  end,  not 
the  beginning,  of  human  endeavor ;  and  must  come 
by  paying  the  price. 

The  earnestness  of  this  aspiration  appears  in  the 
stress  everywhere  laid  upon  the  sufficiency  To  know 
of  really  knowing  and  seeing  truth.  The  ^come*0 
modern  or  Western  mind,  concentrated  on  truth- 
action,  taught  by  its  theology  to  distrust  intellectual 
intuition  in  religious  belief,  finds  it  hard  to  do  justice 
to    the    ancient    principle,    "Whoso    knows    or    sees 

1  Taittariya,  III.  x.  3.  2  Mundaka,  III.  ii.  9 

3  Svetasvatara,  I.  6.        *  Ibid.,  I.  15.        "  Amritanada  Upan-,  Weber,  II.  62. 


334  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

truth  becomes  truth."  But  if  this  principle  was  not 
moral  power,  how  came  it  to  be,  as  it  certainly  was, 
the  resort  of  thoughtful  men  who  sought  to  compre- 
hend and  master  the  ills  of  life?  What  must  they  have 
meant  by  "knowing,"  who  said,  "Whatever  nature 
one  meditates  on,  to  that  nature  he  goes :  he  who 
meditates  on  God  attains  God"?1  The  Semitic  myth 
of  the  Fall  of  Man  separates,  even  to  antagonism,  the 
tree  of  knowledge  from  the  tree  of  immortal  life. 
Here  is  a  deeper  synthesis,  that  makes  the  two  to  be 
one  and  the  same. 

There  is  a  worship  of  knowledge  which  is  not 
pride  of  understanding,  but  sincerity  Of  mind,  —  the 
longing  to  escape  falsities,  the  sway  of  the  will  by 
a  supreme  necessity  of  living  by  truth.  "Truth  alone, 
and  not  falsehood,  conquers :  by  truth  is  opened  the 
path  on  which  the  blest  proceed."2  "No  purifier  in  the 
world  like  knowledge."3  In  the  simplest  and  purest 
form  of  conviction,  to  know  is  not  divorced  from  to 
be  ;  in  other  words,  the  life  goes  into  the  thought,  and 
is  one  with  it.  And  this  sacred  unity  of  Thought  and 
Being  attends  the  highest  philosophy  as  well.  Plato 
distinguishes  "true  science"  from  "opinion,"  affirming 
that  in  this  way  to  know  truth  is  to  become  truth.  Of 
like  purport  is  his  great  ethical  postulate,  that  vice 
is  but  ignorance  ;  none  who  see  the  beauty  of  virtue 
being  capable  of  violating  her  laws.  "Wisdom,"  in 
the  Hebrew  Apocrypha,  shines  with  the  same  ade- 
quacy, reflected  in  large  measure  from  the  Hellenic 
mind.  "  She  is  the  brightness  of  the  Everlasting 
Light ;  and,  being  but  one,  she  can  do  all  things ;  and 
in  all  ages,  entering  into  holy  souls,  she  maketh  them 

1  BJiag.  Gita,  ch.  viii.  *  Mundaka,  III.  6. 

3  Bhag.  Gita,  ch  iv. 


VEDANTA.  335 

friends  of  God  and  prophets."  "Bondage,"  says 
Kapila,  "is  from  delusion."1  "Whoso  knows  is  eman- 
cipated, and  thirsts  no  more."2  Spinoza  answers 
across  the  ages  that  the  knowledge  of  God  is  one  with 
loving  Him.  And  the  Christian  mystic,  of  whose 
genius  the  fourth  Gospel  is  the  product,  puts  into  the 
lips  of  his  ideal  "  Word  "  this  truth  of  universal  relig- 
ion :  "  Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  truth  shall  make 
you  free." 

"  The  truth  of  being  and  the  truth  of  knowing," 
says  Bacon,  "is  all  one.  A  man  is  but  what  he 
knoweth.  For  truth  prints  goodness ;  and  they  be 
the  clouds  of  error  that  descend  in  storms  of  passions 
and  perturbations."3 

To  be  what  one  knows  to  be  real  is  for  ever  the 
goal  of  noble  effort,  simply  because  it  is  implied  in 
the  unity  and  integrity  of  thought.  Nothing  is  really 
known  so  long  as  it  stands  aloof,  as  mere  distinction 
from  the  thinker,  an  external  object  only.  Mind  can 
know  only  by  finding  itself  in  the  thing  known. 
Nothing  is  really  thought  by  us,  whose  being  is  not 
made  mystically  one  with  our  thought,  through  the 
common  element  which  makes  knowledge  possible. 
Nothing  is  really  sfoken  or  named,  unless  the  word  or 
name  is  in  some  sense  merged  in  the  reality  it  would 
express.  Hence,  for  Vedantic  piety,  the  name  needed 
not  to  be  spoken,  but  breathed  only.  "  The  best  wor- 
ship is  the  silent."4  Hence,  too,  the  significance  of 
names  and  even  syllables  for  Oriental  contemplation, 
as  carrying  with  them  something  far  deeper  and 
more  real  than  an  arbitrary  symbolism  for  social  con- 
venience.    Thinking,  naming,  knowing,  are  the  ideals 

1  Kapila,  S&nkhya  Aphorisms.,  III.  24.  2  Ibid.,  II.  Introduction. 

8  Essay  in  Praise  of  Knowledge-  4  BJiag.  Gitd,  ch.  x. 


336  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  contemplative  life.  To  identify  them  with  being 
was  to  prove  them  earnest  and  devout. 

Is  not  all  intense  faith,  will,  love,  identified  with  its 
ideal  purpose?  Does  it  not  make  thought  one  with 
thing,  knowledge  with  what  it  knows,  and  the  name 
with  what  it  means? 

We  know  truth  by  participation,  not  by  observation. 
To  be  absorbed  into  our  idea  or  principle,  so  that  it 
is  the  life  of  our  life,  to  find  it  the  substance  of  our 
path  and  opportunity,  —  this,  not  the  mere  perception 
of  it  as  an  object,  is  to  know  it.  Of  God  what  else 
can  we  know,  save  what  we  have  found  as  life,  ideal 
or  actual,  in  ourselves  ? 

Indispensable  to  universal  religion  is  the  unfailing 
faith  of  all  mystics,  that  to  know  and  to  be  are  one. 

Veda,  Upanishad,  Sutra, — poetry,  philosophy, 
search  for  prayer,  —  are  possessed  by  the  infinite  de- 
truth.  sire  for  spiritual  knowledge.  With  incessant 
questioning  they  beset  the  mystery  of  being.  The 
Svetasvatara  opens  thus :  "  The  seekers  converse  to- 
gether. What  form  of  cause  is  Brahma?  Whence 
are  we  ?  By  whom  do  we  live  and  where  at  last 
abide?  By  whom  are  we  governed?  Do  we  walk  after 
a  law,  in  joy  and  pain,  O  ye  knowers  of  God?  "  And 
the  Kena  thus  :  K  By  whom  decreed  and  appointed, 
does  the  mind  speed  to  its  work  ?  "  The  Mitri  asks  : 
"  How  can  the  soul  forget  its  origin  ?  How,  leaving 
its  selfhood,  be  again  united  thereto  ?  "  In  Yajna- 
valkya's  Code,  the  munis  inquire  of  their  chief:  "  How 
has  this  world  come  into  being,  with  gods,  spirits,  and 
men  ;  and  how  the  soul  itself  ?  Our  minds  are  dark  : 
enlighten  us  on  these  things."  1 

*  Y&jn.,  III.  118. 


VEDANTA.  337 

In  the  Vedanta  poems,  wise  men  and  women  pro- 
pound questions,  and  are  answered  by  wiser  ones,  or 
ask  in  vain.  Experience  is  revealed,  foolishness 
confounded.  "  Answer  truly,  or  thy  head  shall  fall 
down,"  say  these  saints  to  each  other,  let  us  hope 
symbolically.  The  problems  that  all  generations 
must  meet  are  stated,  solved,  or  left  reverently  in  the 
care  of  the  Unknown.  "  How  shall  death  be  escaped, 
and  what  are  the  fetters  of  life  ?  What  is  the  light 
of  this  soul,  when  the  sun  and  moon  have  set  ? 
On  what  are  the  worlds  woven  and  rewoven  ? 
What  is  this  witness,  ever  present,  the  soul  within 
each  ?  If,  O  venerable  one  !  this  whole  world  were 
mine,*could  I  become  immortal  thereby  P"1 

The  wise  answer  wisely,  and  the  questioner  is 
dumb. 

"  The  king  of  the  Videhas  sat  on  his  throne.  Then  came  Yajna- 
valkya.  '  Why  hast  thou  come,  O  Yajnavalkya  ?  Is  it  seeking 
cattle,  or  with  subtle  questions  ? '  — '  Even  both,  O  king  of  kings  ! ' 
—  '•Let  us  hear  what  any  has  taught  thee.''  " 2 

The  boon  the  king  asks  of  his  seers  is  that  he  may 
question  them  at  his  pleasure.  "  O  sages,  whoever  is 
best  knower  of  Brahma,  shall  have  a  thousand  cattle, 
their  horns  overlaid  with  gold."  "  As  a  warrior  rises 
with  arrows,  and  binds  the  string  to  his  bow,  so  will 
I  rise  before  thee  with  two  questions,"  says  Gargi,  the 
daughter  of  Vachacknu ;  "  do  thou  make  answer." 
"Ask  on,  O  Gargi!"  And  questions  and  answers 
lead  on  through  the  circle  of  being,  resting  at  last 
in  the  "  imperishable  One,  who  unseen  sees,  unheard 
hears,  unknown  knows,  beside  whom  there  is  none 
that  sees,  or  hears,  or  knows." 3 

>  Briliad,  III.  IV.  VI.  2  Ibid.,  IV.  i.  s  Ibid.,  III.  viii. 

22 


338  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

"  The  wise  does  not  speak  of  any  thing  else  but  the  Supreme, 
his  delight  is  in  the  soul ;  his  love  and  action  also." ' 

The  earliest  writers  about  the  Hindus  inform  us 
that  this  people  spent  their  time  conversing  on  life 
and  death.  These  lively  Greeks  were  profoundly 
impressed  by  the  absorption  of  the  Brahmans  in  the 
thought  of  immortality.  Megasthenes  noted  their 
frequent  discourse  of  death  as  the  birth  of  the  soul 
into  blessed  life.  And  Porphyry  marvelled  at  their 
passion  for  yielding  life,  even  when  no  evils  pressed 
on  them,  and  their  efforts  to  separate  the  soul  from 
the  senses,  esteeming  those  who  died  to  be  happiest, 
as  receiving  immortal  life. 

Nachiketas,  having  earned  the  promise  of  a  boon 
Nac'mkskas  from  Yama,  or  Death,  demands  to  know  if  the 
death.        soul  1S  immortal.     And  Death  replies  :  2  — 

"  It  is  a  hard  question  :  the  gods  asked  it  of  old.  Choose  another 
boon,  O  Nachiketas !  do  not  compel  me  to  this :  release  me  from 
this." 

N.  "  The  gods  indeed  asked  it  of  old,  O  Death  !  And  as  for  what 
thou  sayest,  that  '  it  is  not  easy  to  understand  it,'  there  is  no  other 
speaker  to  be  found  like  thee,  O  Death  !  there  is  no  other  boon  like 
this." 

Y.  "  Choose,  O  Nachike'tas  !  sons  and  daughters  who  may  live  a 
hundred  years ;  choose  herds  of  cattle,  elephants,  gold,  horses, 
celestial  maidens  ;  choose  the  wide-expanded  earth,  and  live  as 
many  years  as  thou  wilt.  Be  a  king,  O  Nachike'tas !  on  the  wide 
earth  ;  I  will  make  thee  enjoyer  of  all  desires  ;  but  do  not  ask  what 
the  soul  shall  be  after  death. 

N.  "  All  those  enjoyments  are  of  yesterday :  perishes,  O  thou 
end  of  man !  the  glory  of  all  the  senses  ;  and  more,  the  life  of  all 
is  short.  With  thee  remain  thy  horses  and  the  like,  with  thee 
dance  and  song. 

"  Man  rests  not  satisfied  with  wealth.  If  we  should  obtain  wealth 
and  behold  thee,  we  should  live  only  so  long  as  thou  shalt  sway. 
The  boon  I  choose  is  what  I  said. 

1  Mwidaka,  III.  i.  4.  *  Katha  Upan.,  I.-III. 


VEDANTA.  339 

"  What  man  living  in  this  lower  world,  who  knows  that  he  decays 
and  dies,  —  while  going  to  the  undecaying  immortals  he  shall  obtain 
exceeding  bliss,  —  who  knows  the  real  nature  of  such  as  rejoice  in 
beauty  and  love,  can  be  content  with  a  long  life  ? 

"  Answer,  O  Death !  the  great  question,  which  men  ask,  of  the 
coming  world.  Nachike'tas  asks  no  other  boon  but  that,  whereof 
the  knowledge  is  hid." 

Y.  "  One  thing  is  good  :  another  thing  is  pleasure.  Both  with 
different  objects  enchain  man.  Blessed  is  he  who  between  these 
chooses  the  good  alone.  Thou,  O  Nachike'tas  !  considering  the 
objects  of  desire,  hast  not  chosen  the  way  of  riches,  on  which  so 
many  perish. 

"  Ignorance  and  knowledge  are  far  asunder,  and  lead  to  different 
goals.  I  think  thou  lovest  knowledge,  because  the  objects  of  desire 
did  not  attract  thee. 

"  They  who  are  ignorant,  but  fancy  themselves  wise,  go  round 
and  round  with  erring  step,  as  blind  led  by  the  blind.  He  who 
believes  this  world  exists,  and  not  the  other,  is  again  and  again 
subject  to  my  sway. 

"  Of  the  soul,  —  not  gained  by  many,  because  they  do  not  hear 
of  it,  and  which  many  do  not  know,  though  hearing,  —  of  the  soul, 
wonderful  is  the  teacher,  wonderful  the  receiver,  wonderful  the 
knower.  The  knowledge,  O  dearest !  for  which  thou  hast  asked,  is 
not  to  be  gained  by  argument ;  but  it  is  easy  to  understand  it  when 
declared  by  a  teacher  who  beholds  no  difference  in  soul.  Thou  art 
persevering  as  to  the  truth.  May  there  be  for  us  another  inquirer 
like  thee,  O  Nachike'tas  !  Thee  I  believe  a  house  with  open 
door. 

"  The  wise,  by  meditation  on  the  unfathomable  One,  who  is  in  the 
heart,  leaves  both  grief  and  joy  :  having  distinguished  the  soul  from 
the  body,  the  mortal  rejoices,  obtaining  it  in  its  subtle  essence." 

Nor  is  the  questioner  yet  content.  "  Make  known 
to  me  this  being  which  thou  beholdest,  as  different 
from  this  whole  of  times,  of  causes,  and  effects." 
Then  follows  the  praise  of  essential  being ;  of  spirit, 
as  of  one  nature  with  deity  :  —  ♦ 

"  It  is  not  born,  nor  does  it  die  :  it  was  not  produced  from  any 
one,  nor  was  any  produced  from  it.  Eternal  and  without  decay,  it 
is  not  slain,  though  the  body  is  slain. 


34-0  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

"  If  the  slayer  think,  '  I  slay,'  or  if  the  slain  thinks,  '.  I  am  slain,' 
then  both  of  them  do  not  know  well.  It  does  not  slay,  nor  is  it 
slain.  Subtler  than  what  is  subtle,  greater  than  what  is  great,  it 
abides  in  the  heart  of  the  living. 

"  He  who  is  free  from  desire  and  grief  beholds,  through  tran- 
quillity of  his  senses,  that  majesty  of  the  soul. 

"  Sitting,  it  goes  afar  ;  sleeping,  it  goes  everywhere. 

"  Thinking  the  soul  as  bodiless  among  bodies,  as  firm  among 
fleeting  things,  as  great  and  all-pervading,  the  wise  casts  off  all 
grief. 

"  The  soul  cannot  be  gained  by  knowledge  of  rites  and  texts,  not 
by  understanding  of  these,  not  by  manifold  science.  It  can  be 
obtained  by  the  soul  by  which  it  is  desired.  His  soul  reveals  its 
own  truth} 

"  Whoever  has  not  ceased  from  evil  ways,  has  not  subdued  his 
senses,  and  concentrated  his  mind,  does  not  obtain  it,  not  even  by 
knowledge." 

"  Know  the  soul  as  the  rider,  the  body  as  the  car  ;  know  intellect 
as  the  charioteer,  and  mind,  again,  as  the  reins.  The  senses  are 
the  horses,  their  objects  the  roads.2 

"  Whoso  is  unwise  has  the  senses  unsubdued,  like  wicked  horses 
of  the  charioteer.  But  whoso  is  wise  has  the  senses  subdued  like 
good  horses  of  the  charioteer. 

"  Whoso  is  unwise,  unmindful,  always  impure,  does  not  gain  the 
goal,  but  descends  to  the  world  again.  But  whosoever  is  wise, 
mindful,  always  pure,  gains  the  goal  from  whence  he  is  not  born 
again,  the  highest  place  of  the  all-pervading  One. 

"  Higher  than  the  senses  are  their  objects,  higher  than  their 
objects  is  the  mind  -^  intellect  higher  than  mind  ;  higher  than  intel- 
lect the  great  soul.3 

"  Higher  than  this  great  one  the  Unmanifested  ;  higher  than  the 
unmanifested  the  Spirit ; 4  higher  than  this  is  nought  ;  it  is  the  last 
limit  and  highest  goal. 

"  Let  the  wise  subdue  his  speech  by  mind,  his  mind  by  knowl- 
edge, his  knowledge  in  the  great  soul ;  subdue  this  also  in  the 
placid  Soul  [peace  of  the  soul]. 

1  This  is  Sankara's  understanding  of  the  text ;  but  Rber  thinks,  in  common  with  Miiller 
and  Muir,  that  a  more  literal  version  would  be :  "  It  is  attainable  by  him  whom  it  chooses. 
The  Soul  chooses  this  man's  body  as  its  own."  In  view  of  the  context,  however,  the 
meaning  is  substantially  the  same,  —  that  the  wise  seeker  finds  God  within,  and  not  through 
outward  revelations. 

2  Compare  Plato  in  Pkeedrus,  §  74.  3  The  "rider."  *  PurusJut. 


VEDANTA.  34I 

"Awake,  arise,  get  to  the  great  teachers,  and  attend.  The 
wise  say  that  the  road  to  Him  is  as  difficult  to  tread  as  a  razor's 
edge." 

"  The  wise  who  tells  and  hears  the  eternal  tale,  which  Death 
related  and  Nachike'tas  received,  is  adored  in  the  world  of 
Brahma." 

"  It  is  evident,"  says  Dr.  Roer,  the  translator  of  this 
wonderful  Upanishad,  "that  the  Katha  derives  the 
knowledge  of  Brahma  from  philosophy,  and  denies 
the  possibility  of  a  revelation."  l  We  should  say  rather 
it  grandly  identifies  knowledge  with  revelation.  Its 
God  is  revealed  to  the  wise  by  their  own  nature. 

"  One's  soul  reveals  its  own  truth  ;  not  to  be  gained 
by  mere  knowledge  of  Vedas,  by  understanding  nor 
by  science;"  "not  by  word,  mind,  nor  eye,  but  by 
the  soul  by  which  it  is  desired  ;  "  nor  by  intellect  alone, 
but  by  "union  of  intellect  with  soul."2 

There  is  nothing  of  which  we  read  so  much  in  this 
Hindu  thought  and  worship  as  Immortality .  _. 

or  J      The  sense 

It  is  the  word  for  final  beatitude,  for  the  end  of  immor- 
of  all  human  aspiration.     "  Whoso  is  one  with 
the  Supreme  obtains    immortality,"  is  the  burden  of 
precept,  philosophy,  and  prayer.     "  Immortal  become 
those  who  know."  3     What  meaning  did  they  attach 
to  the  term  ? 

Certainly  the  idea  of  self-conscious  individuality 
beyond  death  did  not  stand  so  definitely  before  these 
dreaming  souls  as  it  does  before  the  sharper  intelli- 
gence and  the  intenser  individualism  of  the  modern 
mind.4  But  this  was  simply  because  self-conscious- 
ness was  not  so  definitely  conceived  as  a  present  fact ; 

1  Katha,  hitrod.  2  Ibid.,  II.  23;  VI.  12;  II.  12. 

s  Ibid.,  VI.  9. 

4  It  is  denied  in  the  Brifuid  (Vf .  v.  13)  that  after  death  there  is  any  self-consciousness  ; 
but  it  is  explained  as  referring  to  such  as  are  become  pure  send,  —  one  with  Brahma. 


342  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

because  it  is  never  definite  to  the  contemplative  imagi- 
nation, which  tends  to  escape  it,  rather  than  seeks  to 
hold  it  fast. 

On  the  other  hand  that  anxious  dependence  on  it 
which  comes  with  the  growth  of  the  understanding, 
and  the  complexity  and  refinement  of  personal  relation 
to  men  and  things,  did  not  trouble  them  with  the 
doubts  and  fears  which  beset  it  in  view  of  the  mystery 
of  physical  death. 

It  is  here  that  the  feeling  of  -personal  liberty,  so 
^.„  much   stronger  in  the  Western    than    in    the 

Difference  o 

of  Eastern  Eastern  races,  shows  at  once  its  value  and  its 
conscious-  defect.  Their  belief  in  definite  creation  as  an 
ness-  act  of  divine  Will,  for  instance,  so  cherished 

by  them,  has  this  advantage  over  the  Oriental  belief 
in  Emanation,  that  it  expresses  and  develops  the 
human  sense  of  free  intelligent  purpose;  and  thus 
strengthens  the  hold  of  the  individual  soul  on  its  own 
conscious  existence,  and  its  faith  in  its  own  continu- 
ance as  a  productive  force.  At  the  same  time,  this 
strong  individuality,  nurtured  not  only  by  the  belief 
just  mentioned,  but  in  so  many  other  ways,  brings 
a  certain  sense  of  isolation.  Self-consciousness  be- 
comes a  treasure  that  demands  profoundest  care.  It 
is  besieged  by  anxieties  and  fears,  arising  from  mys- 
teries which  the  understanding,  thus  roused  to  full 
faith  in  itself,  and  in  itself  alone,  is  yet  incompe- 
tent to  fathom.  But  a  larger  liberty  succeeds,  which 
drops  the  burden.  It  comes  of  fresh  self-absorption 
in  ideas  and  principles,  in  the  life  of  the  whole,  as 
the  unity  of  God  and  Man. 

The  absence  of  this  jealous  watch  over  personal 
consciousness  would  naturally  cause  the  Hindus  to  feel 
comparatively  little    interest    in    continued    existence 


VEDANTA.  343 

after  death.  Yet  so  strong  is  the  desire  of  these 
dreamers  for  real  being,  so  entire  their  faith  that  they 
are  made  for  it,  that  they  perpetually  recur  to  the  idea 
of  immortality ;  haunted  by  the  sense  of  a  life  beyond 
death  or  change.  And  it  is  not  merely  another  name 
for  the  joy  of  losing  conscious  being  in  the  life  of 
Brahma. 

For  they  followed  the  spirit  through  future  lives ; 
traced  it  back  to  past  ones  ;  believed  in  reminis- 

1  Individual 

cence  of  actions  done  in  former  states  of  being  ;  immortal- 
shrank  from  future  bonds  of  penalty  for  present 
deeds,  as  if  they  fully  recognized  that  personality  was 
somehow  continuous  through  these  manifold  births.  It 
was  in  fact  associated  with  transmigration,  if  only  as  a 
doom  to  be  escaped.  But  it  would  seem  impossible  that 
the  goal  which  they  yearned  to  attain  beyond  that, 
and  which  seemed  to  them  worth  the  sacrifice  of  all 
positive  special  desires,  could  be  other  than  a  form  of 
conscious  being.  It  is  certainly  the  longing  of  all 
mystical  love  and  faith,  to  rest  in  no  other  object  of 
thought,  to  be  conscious  of  no  lower  form  of  being, 
than  the  One  and  Eternal.  Yet  they  do  not  discon- 
nect this  rest,  even  in  conception,  from  personal  ex- 
perience and  the  sense  of  communion  with  God. 
One  of  the  Upanishads,  for  instance,  describes  poeti- 
cally the  soul  of  the  just  man  as  ascending  to  Brahma's 
world :  there  it  is  questioned  by  Him  about  its  faith 
and  knowledge,  and,  being  wisely  answered,  is 
welcomed  thus  :  "  This  my  world  is  thine."  l 

As  the  old  Hymns  of  the  Rig  Veda  pray  for  distinct, 
conscious  immortality  in  the  "  world  of  imperishable 
light,  whither  the  fathers  had  gone  before,  and  where 
all  desires  shall  be  fulfilled,"  —  so  even  the  abstrac- 

1  Kaiishitaki  Upan.,  Weber,  I.  395-403. 


344  RELIGIOUS   PHILOSOPHY. 

tions  of  later  philosophy  glow  with  assurance,  how- 
ever ill-defined  and  mystical,  of  essential  life  as  the 
crown  of  sacrifice  and  devotion.  "On  whatever 
nature  thou  meditatest  at  thy  last  hour,  with  desire,  to 
that  shalt  thou  go."  1  "  The  heavens  are  Light ;  "  2 
"  the  highest  thought  is  a  drop  of  Light ;  " 3  and  the 
departing  spirit  has  a  sunbeam  for  its  guide.4  "  As  a 
serpent  casts  its  slough,  so  this  body  is  left  by  the 
soul.     Its  immortal  life  is  Brahma,  even  Light."5 

Of  the  desire  to  keep  track  of  the  individual  soul 
on  a  definite  path  beyond  death,  we  shall  speak  else- 
where. But,  after  all,  surely  the  vaguer  sentiment 
of  a  natural  confidence  in  life  itself  is  nobler  ;  leaving 
this  invisible  future,  in  its  form  and  detail,  to  the 
benignity  and  wisdom  of  immortal  laws ;  confident 
that  these  must  involve  what  is  best  for  the  nature 
whose  relations  they  unchangeably  represent. 

The  Vedanta  philosophy,  in  its  highest  form, 
immortality  affirms  that  the  proper  definition  of  Immortal 
m  the         Life  is  to  know  God,  by  discernment  of  the 

knowledge  J 

of  God.       soul  as  real  being.6 

Mere  continued  existence,  from  world  to  world,  did 
not,  for  such  aspiration,  constitute  the  substance  or  root 
of  Immortality  at  all.  It  hardly  entered  as  a  noticeable 
element  into  the  conception  of  this  fulness  of  knowl- 
edge and  bliss.  No  pains  were  taken  to  prove  the 
fact.  And  the  very  thought  of  lapsing  times  and 
renewed  births  was  to  be  escaped,  for  the  pure  sense 
of  inalienable  and  eternal  being.  To  know  one's  self 
as  one  with  necessary  life  was  the  fact  of  Immortal- 
ity, and  the  evidence  of  the  fact,  at  once. 

1  BhagavadgitH.  2  Brihad.  3  Tejovhidi  Upan.,  Weber,  II.  63. 

4  Thomson's  Bhag.  Gita,  note  to  p.  60 ;  Brahma-Sutras,  in  Colebrooke,  I.  366. 
B  Brihad,  IV.  18,  7.  °  Brihad,  IV.  iv.  14. 


VEDANTA.  345 

Manifestly  the  contents  of  the  idea  here  indicated 
are  not  to  be  supposed  the  same,  whenever  Forceofthis 
and  wherever  the  same  terms  are  employed evidence- 
to  express  it.  But,  as  Idea,  it  is  for  ever  the 
essence  of  all  spiritual  evidence  on  this  subject. 
How  can  we  possibly  know  ourselves  immortal, 
otherwise  than  by  experience  of  what  is  imperisha- 
ble, and  by  knowing  that  we  are  in  and  of  it,  and 
inseparable  from  it?  "To  know  thyself  immortal," 
said  Goethe   also,  "  live  in  the  whole." 

K  Evidences  of  immortality "  which  do  not  meet 
these  conditions  of  assurance  are  crude  and  imper- 
fect :  their  defect  of  spiritual  vitality  and  relation  is 
fatal  to  them.  Such  are  those  which  infer  a  future 
life  for  all  men  from  traditions  of  a  single  miraculous 
resurrection ;  and  those  which  rest  on  testimonies  to 
the  reappearance  of  many  persons  after  their  bodily 
death,  as  through  some  natural  law ;  and  those  which 
proceed  on  the  ground  that  we  can  be  spiritually  fed 
by  the  reflection  of  our  curiosity  or  desire,  or  even  by 
the  echoes  of  our  gossip,  from  beyond  the  veil.  Of 
such  physical  evidences  of  mere  continued  existence, 
the  Vedanta  philosophy  knows  nothing.  It  does  not 
seek  its  data  on  this  external  plane. 

But  of  those  higher  forms  of  evidence,  whose 
method,  still  the  best  we  know,  has  the  most  T„ 

Illustrations. 

intimate  relation  to  essential  truth  and  life, 
that  older  piety,  like  the  best  of  every  later  faith,  has 
full  measure ;  though  their  practical  contents  in  Hindu 
experience  cannot  of  course  compare  with  those  of  a 
larger  civilization.  The  Sankhya  philosophy  proves 
immortality  from  the  effort  we  make  to  liberate  our- 
selves from  the  senses ;  the  Vedanta,  from  the  reality 
of  all  spirit ;  Brahmanas  and  Upanishads  alike,  from 


346  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  knowledge  of  God  in  the  soul ;  and  one  Vedic 
hymn,  as  Miiller  translates  it,  from  death  itself. 
"  There  was  in  the  beginning  no  death  ;  therefore 
no  immortality."  x 

Soul  itself  was  immortality,  "indestructible,  an- 
cient," "  not  to  be  dissipated,  not  to  be  seized  nor 
touched  ; "  soul  itself,  in  its  essence  one  with  the  Su- 
preme.2 It  is  one's  own  soul  that  teaches  this,  "  if 
he  be  desirous  of  immortal  nature."  "  Wise,  mindful, 
always  pure,  subduing  the  senses,  fixed  on  God,  one 
finds  the  place  where  fear  is  not;  the  goal,  the  refuge, 
the  serene  Soul :  he  escapes  the  mouth  of  death."3 

The  sum  was  this.  To  know  the  infinite  and  eter- 
nal in  all,  makes  immortal  life.  The  Bhagavadgita 
says,  "  He  is  bright  as  the  sun  beyond  darkness  at  the 
hour  of  death."  4  And  the  Mundaka,  "  He  is  the  bridge 
to  immortality."5  "When  He  is  known,"  says  the 
Kena,  "  as  the  nature  of  every  thought,  then  immor- 
tality is  known."6  It  is  "the  death  of  duality  in  the 
soul :  when  the  notion  of  being  different  (in  essence) 
from  the  Supreme  ceases,  the  soul  upheld  by  him 
becomes  immortal."7 

"  Cast  off  thy  desires  as  the  serpent  his  slough  :  break  but  this 
bondage  of  the  heart,  thou  art  immortal  here." 8 

"  That  Supreme  Soul,  whose  work  is  the  universe,  always  dwell- 
ing in  the  hearts  of  all  beings,  is  revealed  by  the  heart.  Those 
who  know  Him  become  immortal.  None  can  comprehend  Him  in 
space  above  or  space  below  or  space  between.  For  Him  whose 
name  is  the  glory  of  the  universe,  there  is  no  likeness." 

"  Not  in  the  sight  abides  his  form,  none  beholds  Him  with 
the  eye.  Those  who  know  Him  as  dwelling  within  become 
immortal." 9 

1  Sansk.  Lit.,  560.        2  Upanishads,  passim  ;  Bhagav.  Gita.        3  Katha,  III.  IV. 
«  Bh.  G.,  VIII.  s  Mundaka,  II.  ii.  5.  B  Kena,  II.  4. 

7  Brih.,  II.  iv-  ;  Svetasvatara. 

8  Katha,  VI.  15.  9  Svetas'v.,  IV.  17-20. 


VEDANTA.  347 

In  that  interior  sense  in  which  the  eternal  only  is 
real,  the  transient  is  phantasmal.  Conceived  Miyaj  the 
as  manifold,  transitional,  not  as  one  in  essence,  phenomenal. 
but  as  ever-flowing  form,  the  world  to  the  Vedantist 
was  but  a  shadow.  Its  phenomena  referred  him  to 
somewhat  beyond,  which  they  could  but  hint,  which 
their  changefulness  suggested  by  contrast  only. 
Every  passing  fact  or  form  in  its  vanishing  said : 
"  Not  in  me  thy  goal,  thy  rest.  I  am  but  masking 
and  disguise."  We  recall  the  cry  of  Job  out  of  the 
depths  of  this  sense  of  the  perishable  :  — 

"Where  is  wisdom,  and  where  the  place  of  understanding  ?  It 
cannot  be  found  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

"  The  deep  saith,  '  It  is  not  in  me  ; '  and  the  sea  saith,  '  Not  in 
me.'  Destruction  and  death  say,  '  We  have  heard  of  its  fame  with 
our  ears.'  God  only  knoweth  the  way  to  it.  He  only  its  dwelling- 
place. 

"  Behold  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  thy  wisdom ;  and  to  depart 
from  evil,  thy  understanding." 

The  "  wisdom "  which  the  Aryan  mystic,  on  his 
part  also,  could  not  find  in  the  land  of  the  living,  nor 
in  the  sky  nor  sea,  nor  in  destruction  and  death,  was 
to  him  also  a  reality ;  and  it  turned  the  perishable  to 
a  shadow,  only  as  knowing  the  unchangeable  to  be  a 
reality.  His  "  fear "  was  the  fear  of  being  swept 
from  that  foothold  by  the  tide  of  fleeting  forms.  His 
"forsaking  of  evil"  was  in  casting  off  delusion,  and 
knowing  truth  as  the  one  and  imperishable  refuge. 
The  shifting  play  of  forms  in  time  and  space,  in  that 
they  were  not  truth  in  this  sense,  was  illusion.  Did 
they  not  change  with  the  eye  itself  that  beheld  them? 
Of  what  could  their  flowing  and  flitting  give  assur- 
ance? This  evanescence  mocked  the  infinite  thirst 
of  man,  and  piqued  it  to  negation.     This  was  their 


34§  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

mdyd.  It  was  coextensive  with  the  universe  of 
change.  It  was  unreality;  yet  not  in  the  sense  in 
which  one  who  had  learned  to  associate  great  human 
interests  with  the  visible  world  would  use  the  word  in 
contradistinction  to  their  reality.  It  will  be  better 
understood  in  the  sense  in  which  it  would  be  applied 
to  the  world  in  contrasting  such  reality  with  its  evanes- 
cence, which  in  this  point  of  view  would  become  its 
wwreality. 

Maya  was  not    a   declaration    of  nonentity,   not  a 
pure  negation.     It  was   part  of  the   mystic's 

Its  perma-  .  .  .  J 

nent  mean-  solution  of  his  problem  of  aspiration  versus 
imperfection,  of  ideal  and  actual,  of  the 
moral  choice  between  a  higher  and  a  lower  aim. 
Maya  was  his  explanation  of  that  flicker  of  the  senses 
which  disturbed  his  contemplation,  and  mocked  his 
effort  to  fix  thought  and  heart  on  Being  alone.  His 
mastery  of  wandering  desires,  and  sorrow,  and  evil, 
and  of  all  that  bitterness  in  the  actual,  which  smote 
on  his  ideal  hope,  was  in  that  word  Illusion.  It  solved 
the  mystery.  It  overcame  the  world.  For  it  meant ;  — 
These  things  are  not  really  as  they  seem.  It  is  only 
that  I  see  them  so  for  the  moment.  Their  sense  is  in 
what  my  soul  shall  make  them  mean  through  its  one- 
ness with  the  real ;  which  I  shall  know  even  as  it  is 
when  I  am  master  of  self  and  sense,  and  in  knowing 
become. 

Give  us,  what  we  are  now  attaining  so  fast,  full 
understanding  of  material  and  social  uses ;  turn'  the 
current  of  faith  and  work  from  the  transcendental 
dream  of  the  East  into  the  positive  and  clear  actualism 
of  the  West ;  yet  this  substance  of  the  necessity 
which  the  believer  in  mdyd  felt,  none  the  less  truly 
stands  fast  for  us  also.     And  its  uses  remain ;  though 


VEDANTA.  349 

what  Goethe  calls  the  "tenacious  persistence  of  what- 
ever has  once  arrived  at  actual  being,"  the  exactly 
opposite  pole  to  that  Oriental  sense  of  instability  and 
transience,  has  now  become  the  all-controlling  spring 
of  thought  and  conduct. 

Maya,  in  its  root,  ma,  meant  at  first  manifestation 
or  creation,  marking  these  as  real;  then  this  Meaning  of 
reality  considered  in  its  mystery,  the  riddle  theword- 
which  finite  existence  is  to  the  sense  of  the  infinite  in 
man ;  and  so,  generally,  the  mystery  of  all  subtle 
untraceable  powers,  —  and  from  this  meaning  of  the 
word  come  magic  and  mage;  and  last,  in  this  com- 
pleted mystic  devotion,  it  meant  the  illusion  that 
besets  all  finite  things.  Such  the  power  of  the  spirit 
to  take  up  the  visible  universe  into  its  dream,  to  turn 
its  concrete  substance  into  shadow,  its  positive  real 
into  unreal,  and  dissolve  the  solid  earth  in  the  fervent 
heat  of  faith. 

Some  have  referred  the  complete  conception  of 
mdyd  to  an  advanced  stage  of  Hindu  philos- 

J  °  r  Function  of 

ophy.  In  the  earlier  Upanishads  there  is  a  Maya  in  the 
certain  realism  in  the  idea  of  the  world  and  of  ryan  "^  ' 
life ;  and  they  present  these  as  consubstantial  with 
God,  rather  than  illusory  in  any  absolute  sense.1  It 
has  even  been  supposed  —  I  cannot  see  with  what 
reason  —  that  mdyd  originated  in  the  negations  of 
Buddhism.  But  its  substance  seems  to  be  inherent  in 
the  structure  of  the  Aryan  mind,  after  all ;  whose 
habit,  even  in  its  most  practical  phases,  is  to  treat 
its  present  conception  of  a  truth  or  a  thing  as  partial 

1  See  Banerjea,  Dialogites  on  Hindu  Philosophy,  p.  386.  Colebrooke  (Essays,  I. 
377)  says  that  maya  does  not  belong  to  the  original  Vedanta  Sutras.  It  is  very  fully  devel- 
oped, however,  in  some  of  the  later  Upanishads,  such  as  the  Svetas'vatara. 


350  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

and  imperfect ;  in  other  words,  as  (so  far)  illusion  in 
view  of  a  better  future  one.  On  this  habit  of  holding 
the  facts  of  experience  as  provisional  depends  the 
power  of  progress  which  distinguishes  it.  This  is  no 
fanciful  analogy.  To  the  courage  and  energy  of  the 
Aryan  race,  as  well  as  to  its  contemplative  faculty,  in 
the  West  as  in  the  East,  the  actual  is  always  plastic 
and  convertible.  It  flits  like  dreams  in  the  waking 
moment,  before  the  higher  possibility  that  beckons 
beyond.  All  is  mdyd,  as  contrasted  with  the  perma- 
nence of  productive  Mind.  Neither  in  speculation 
nor  practice  is  any  special  form  of  being  held  to  be 
independent  of  this  all-revising,  reconstituting  force. 
The  more  it  discerns  of  the  world,  the  more  intensely 
does  it  transfer  reality  from  the  conceptions  that  are 
behind  to  those  that  are  before,  and  sweep  these  in 
turn  into  the  same  transforming  flood.  Mind  makes, 
unmakes,  and  makes  again. 

Yet  the  true  limitation  of  mdyd  comes  through  this 
very  faith  in  mind  as  the  only  substantial  reality  and 
power ;  a  fact  which  appears  pre-eminently  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Indo-European.  I  refer  to  the  claim 
of  the  individual  soul  to  persistence,  by  virtue  of  hold- 
ing in  itself  full  recognition  of  this  validity  of  mind. 
Consciousness  of  being,  in  other  words,  involves  par- 
ticipation in  being.  No  Eastern  dream  of  universal 
metamorphosis,  or  of  the  unreality  of  definite  forms  or 
the  evanescence  of  experience,  is  likely  to  shake  the 
sense  which  culture  is  enforcing,  of  somewhat  per- 
manent in  the  subjective  source  of  one's  changing 
thought  and  growth,  memory  and  desire.  With  us,  as 
well  as  with  these  mystic  dreamers,  such  words  as  "con- 
sciousness," "self,"  "identity,"  hover  in  a  dim  atmos- 
phere of  past  changes  and  future  possibilities.     But  the 


VEDANTA.  35I 

indefiniteness  of  these  ideas  is  passing  more  and  more 
surely  into  a  sense  of  permanent  relation  to  the  whole  ; 
and  this  sense  comes  to  be  the  real  self-conscious- 
ness, giving  sublimer  meaning  and  validity  to  life  as 
life.  To  have  once  arrived  at  personality,  to  generate 
the  perception  of  being,  and  to  have  consciousness  of 
it  as  real,  is  to  partake  of  that  reality.  And  whatever 
is  achieved  by  this  personality  participates  in  like  man- 
ner in  its  validity.  So  that  even  the  fleeting  detail  of 
life  and  conduct  assumes  eternal  meaning.  The  use 
of  illusion  is  to  deepen,  not  to  destroy,  this  meaning; 
being  genially  interpreted  as  friendly  to  the  soul,  and 
the  natural  index  of  its  perpetual  growth.  We  may 
well  believe  that  it  had  its  helpful  and  hopeful  aspects 
to  the  more  contemplative  Oriental  mind  also,  seeking 
in  its  way  to  lose  individual  self-consciousness  in  the 
life  of  the  whole. 

Maya  was  the  fine  sense  of  transition,  of  the  flow 
of  form  into  form,  that  makes  each  intangible  Analogues 
and  elusive ;  the  sign  of  evanescence.  In  of  Miyl 
the  delicate  mythology  of  the  Greek,  it  appears  as 
mother  of  Hermes,  who  is  messenger  of  the  gods,  and 
their  deceiver  also  ;  the  cheat  of  expectation,  the  thief 
of  trusts ;  whose  brisk  and  versatile  genius  can  never- 
theless draw  music  from  the  laggard  tortoise  of  time. 

It  is  ?ndyd,  too,  that  we  trace  in  the  keen  dialectics 
of  the  Eleatic  School,  chasing  time  and  space  and  all 
forms  of  perception  through  the  vanishing  points  of 
transition,  to  end  in  the  same  sense  of  the  phantasmal 
everywhere  save  in  "  the  One." 

And  modern  science  comes  back  to  mdyd  in  its 
protean  dance  of  forces  ;  its  metamorphoses  and  cor- 
relations, that  prove  the  manifold  to  be  illusory,  and 
all  phases  of  force  to  be  in  essence  one. 


352  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

The  common  sense  of  civilization  is  not  at  war  with 
its indispen- this  ancient  wisdom  of  Illusion.  It  needs  no 
sabieness.  mystic  to  see  that  may  a  is  not  to  be  escaped,  is 
indeed  the  most  practical  of  realities.  Does  not  our  so 
palpable  and  solid  world  change  with  the  eye  that  looks 
on  it  ?  Does  it  not  mock  our  fixed  ideas  and  our 
stable  definitions  ?  Not  even  does  gold  mean  gold. 
The  boy's  coppers  are  gold  to  him  ;  but  what  are 
eagles  to  the  miser  ?  Are  dollars  wealth,  tied  round 
a  drowning  man's  waist  for  preservation,  and  so 
dragging  him  down  to  loss  of  all  ?  Are  the  shrewd 
shrewd  ?  How  the  financial  storm  sweeps  down  the 
business  colossus  beneath  petty  men  who  trembled  in 
his  shadow !  Room  yet  for  thee,  great  Maya,  with 
the  wisest  of  the  children  of  this  world  ! 

Is  not  all  our  knowledge  relative  ?  Who  of  us  sees 
the  facts  as  they  are  ?  An  owl's  eyes  peering  into 
darkness  detects  what  we  cannot.  Molecular  immo- 
bility is  an  illusion.  Every  atom  vibrates  with  cosmic 
and  local  movements,  imperceptible  to  eye  or  ear. 
"  The  human  organism  reaches  but  a  little  way  along 
the  scale  of  sensibility."  And  the  universe  is  aflame 
and  vocal  with  subtler  light  and  sound  that  it  perceives 
not.  What  comes  with  the  touch  of  the  insect's  anten- 
nas, or  the  cilia  of  the  rotifer  ?  Our  chemist  knows 
what  nature  is  made  of,  for  his  crucibles ;  but  let  him 
tell  us  what  she  is  to  the  monad  in  the  water-drop, 
and  show  the  relations  of  that  image  to  the  world,  as  it 
stands  in  the  thought  that  combines  galaxies  and  eeons 
as  we  do  stars  and  hours.  What  is  nature  to  deity, 
to  the  Soul  that  sees  all  as  an  Eternal  Now  ?  And 
beneficent  Maya  still  helps  us  to  solve  the  problems  of 
evil.  For  if  sorrow  and  loss  mean  exactly  what  they 
seem,  then  what  sense  is  there  in  our  hope  to  find 


VEDANTA.  353 

that  in  them  which  we  see  not  ?  If  inscrutable  wrongs 
and  vices  are  not  to  be  newly  read  from  a  higher 
point  of  vision,  then  what  are  providence  and  growth, 
and  how  shall  we  justify  existence  itself  ?  There  is 
no  solution  of  these  mysteries  till  we  take  to  heart  the 
laws  of  illusion.  Plutarch  finely  says,  "  Alter  the 
nature  of  your  misfortunes  by  putting  a  different  con- 
struction on  them."  Always  it  is  man's  wisdom  as 
well  as  relief  to  expect  metamorphoses,  and  to  deny 
stability  of  the  hard  solid  facts  that  resist  us.  To  read 
between  these  lines  ;  to  see  loss  as  gain  in  the  making, 
fate  as  freedom,  failure  as  success,  death  as  life, — 
thus  still  and  ever  to  recognize  illusion,  —  is  the  path 
to  reality. 

Very  solid  is  granite,  very  rigid  is  fact ;  and  you 
shall  take  men  and  things  as  they  are.  Undeniable 
indeed  ;  but  how  are  they  ?  "  Where  the  spider  sucks 
poison,  the  bee  finds  honey,"  says  the  proverb.  What 
we  are,  that  we  see  ;  and,  sooner  or  later,  we  find  that 
the  first  step  to  knowledge  is  to  doubt  if  things  are  what 
they  seem.  Under  the  thought  of  the  Hindu  mystic, 
that  all  below  God  is  illusion,  hides  a  secret  that 
masters  pain  and  loss,  and  turns  hindrance  to  help. 
He  saw  that  the  permanent  only  was  to  be  trusted ; 
and  his  mdyd  meant  that  he  knew  whatsoever  did 
not  yield  him  this  to  be  delusion  and  dream.  Natural 
illusions  have  their  protective  uses,  their  fine  adapta- 
tions and  delights ;  recognized  more  and  more,  the 
larger  the  sense  of  practical  capabilities  in  life.  They 
gird  it  with  delicate  talismans  and  charms  ;  soften  rough 
contacts  ;  hide  sterner  fates.  All  the  more  need,  then, 
that,  when  we  learn  how  they  play  with  our  credulity, 
we  do  not  react  to  universal  doubt,  but  pluck  divine 
certainties  even  from  the  heart  of  our  dreams.     And 

23 


354  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

in  the  rush  and  whirl  of  social  machinery,  the  phantas- 
magoria of  things,  we  want  all  the  more  of  the  tran- 
scendental conviction  that  there  is  pure  reality  in  the 
best  and  highest  only.  It  is  better  to  believe  the 
world  and  the  senses  to  be  illusory  than  to  believe 
the  eternal,  the  immutable,  the  ground  of  law  and 
duty  and  faith,  to  be  a  dream. 

Hindu  philosophy  did  not  fail  on  this  side.  Crea- 
The  world  tion  indeed  was  illusion ;  yet  it  had  its 
from1"  e  substance  in  a  divine  intent ;  and  at  least  was 
Brahma,  not  separated  therefrom.  It  was  Brahma's 
own  maya,  his  "breathing,"  his  "sport,"  his  "magic," 
and  so  within  him  still ;  1  not  the  outside  ball,  made 
of  nothing,  and  flung  out  of  his  hand  to  spin  of  itself. 
In  the  Hindu  myth  that  God  created  the  world  "  by  a 
thought"  there  is  even  a  deeper  hold  on  the  imma- 
nence of  Spirit  than  in  the  Hebrew,  that  it  was  called 
into  being  by  a  "word"  —  something  sent  out  and 
away  from  the  mouth,  as  it  were.  "God  said,  and 
it  was,"  is  the  one  :  "  God  thought,  and  it  was,  "  is 
the  other. 

Hebrew  religion,  fervent  and  spiritual  as  it  was, 
emphasized  separation  between  God  and  the 

Semitic  and 

Aryan  world,  especially  the  world  of  man.  It  was 
the  shrinking  of  the  soul  before  its  own  ideal, 
in  a  deep  sense  of  short-coming ;  and  these  seeds  of 
fear  and  alienation  in  the  religious  sentiment  grew 
into  debasing  theologies  which  no  imperfect  bridge- 
work  of  mediation  or  atonement  can  permanently 
redeem.      Hindu  belief  emphasized  oneness   of  God 

1  "He  who  is  only  One,  possessed  of  maya,  united  with  maya,  creates  the  whole." 
Svetastiatarciy  III.  i;  IV.  9.  "The  MayS  of  the  Vedantists,"  says  the  Dabistan,  "is 
the  'magic  of  God  ; '  because  the  universe  is  'his  playful  deceit.'  He  gives  it.  apparent 
existence,  himself  the  unity  of  reality ;  like  an  actor,  passing  every  moment  from  form  into 
form."    Dab.,  ch.  ii.  4. 


VEDANTA.  355 

with  the  world  ;  even  in  the  play  of  illusions  seeking 
fearlessly  for  the  reality  they  disguised.  It  lacked 
the  awe  the  Semite  felt  in  presence  of  his  own 
conception  of  the  Infinite.  It  was  not  a  goad  of 
self-condemnation  like  his  stern  moral  law.  And  it 
could  degenerate,  though  in  different  ways,  into 
mythology  and  rite  as  superstitious  as  the  Semitic. 
But  its  ground  was  faith,  not  fear ;  and  now  that  re- 
ligion, mature  enough  to  dispense  with  schemes  for 
"reconciling  God  and  man,"  affirms,  as  its  starting- 
point,  the  immanence  of  deity,  it  is  simply  resuming 
on  a  higher  plane,  and  with  practical  insight,  the  truth 
which  early  Aryan  philosophy  instinctively  divined. 

I  do  not  forget  that  idolatry  of  the  Veda,  which 
might  seem  to  disprove  these  claims  of  devo-  vedawor- 
tion  to  the  Spirit  alone.  In  the  wide  freedom  ship- 
of  discussion  open  to  the  Hindu  schools,  through 
endless  subtleties  of  speculation  on  the  primal  ques- 
tions of  being  and  thought,  the  authority  of  this 
common  bible,  twisted  and  accommodated,  like  the 
Christian,  in  every  way  that  teachers  or  times  might 
demand,  is  for  the  most  part  accepted  without  ques- 
tion. The  Vedanta  commentators,  especially,  labor 
to  prove  that  it  is  infallible  and  without  human  author, 
identical  with  "the  eternity  of  sound;"  and  that  the 
rishis,  who  are  called  makers  of  the  hymns,  really 
saw  them  only.  How  far  this  last  theory  implied  that 
the  human  faculties  of  these  inspired  men  were  sup- 
planted by  supernatural  vision,  may  not  be  easy  to 
say.  These  are  questions  which  bibliolatry  raises  in 
all  religions.  But  the  mystical  worship  of  soul  rose 
easily  out  of  such  conventionalism  into  the  assertion 
of  its  own  higher  inspiration.  Scarcely  one  of  the 
Upanishads  fails  to  urge  the  superiority  of  the  science 


35 6  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  soul  to  the  study  of  scripture,  or  else  to  imply  this 
by  the  whole  tenor  of  its  thought.  "  Of  what  use," 
they  say,  K  are  the  hymns  of  the  Rig  to  one  who  does 
not  know  Him  in  whom  all  the  gods  abide?  M1  To  one 
who  said,  "  I  know  only  the  hymns,  while  I  am 
ignorant  of  soul,"  a  sage  replies,  "What  thou  hast 
studied  is  name.  But  there  is  something  which  is 
more  than  name."2  "There  are  two  sciences:  the 
lesser  comprehends  the  rituals,  astronomy,  the  study 
of  words,  and  the  Vedas ;  the  higher  is  the  science 
by  which  the  Eternal  One  is  known."3 

It  may  be  of  use  to  hear  the  testimony  of  the  author 
of  the  Dabistan,  who  wrote  two  or  three  centuries  ago, 
as  to  the  spirit  of  the  later  Vedantists.  He  records  a 
visit  made  to  one  of  their  schools  with  an  eminent 
Hindu  poet,  who  was  filled  with  admiration  at  what 
he  heard  there,  and  said,  "  My  whole  life  is  passed  in 
the  company  of  devotees  ;  but  my  eyes  never  beheld 
such  independence,  and  my  ears  never  heard  any 
thing  comparable  to  the  speeches  of  these  emanci- 
pated men." 

A  few  passages  brought  together  from  the  literature 
of  this  Spiritual  Pantheism  will  show  the  meaning  it 
gave  to  Soul,  Duty,  Deity,  Life  :  — 

"  Whatever  exists  in  this  world  is  to  be  enveloped  in  the  thought 
The  su-  of  the  supreme  Soul.  Whoever  beholds  all  beings  in 
preme  soul,  this  soul  alone,  and  the  soul  in  all  beings,  cannot  look 
down  on  any  creature.  When  one  knows  that  all  is  soul,  when  he 
beholds  its  unity,  then  is  there  no  delusion,  no  grief." 

"  He  is  all-pervading,  bodiless,  pure,  untainted  by  sin,  all-wise, 
ruler  of  mind,  above  all  beings,  and  self-existent.  He  distributed 
things  according  to  their  nature  for  everlasting  years."  4 

"  Adore  Him,  ye  gods,  after  whom  the  year  with  its  rolling  days 

1  Svetasvaiara-        2  Chhandogya.        3  Mundaka.  I   i.  5.        4  Vayasaneya  Upan. 


\ 


VEDANTA.  357 

is  completed,  the  Light  of  lights,  the  Immortal  Life.  He  is  the 
Ruler  and  Preserver  of  all,  the  Bridge,  the  Upholder  of  worlds  lest 
they  fall." ' 

"  The  great,  the  Lord  in  truth,  the  Perfect  One,  the  Mover  of  all 
that  is,  the  Ruler  of  purest  bliss,  He  is  Light  and  He  is  everlasting. 
He,  the  Infinite  Spirit,  is  like  the  sun  after  darkness.  He  is  to  be 
adored  by  the  deity  of  the  sun :  from  Him  alone  has  arisen  the 
ancient  knowledge." 

"  By  the  Perfect  Soul  is  all  this  universe  pervaded.  None  can 
comprehend  Him  in  the  space  above,  the  space  below,  or  the  space 
between.  For  Him  whose  name  is  infinite  glory  there  is  no  like- 
ness. Not  in  the  sight  abides  his  form.  None  beholds  Him  by 
the  eye :  they  who  know  Him  dwelling  in  the  heart  and  mind  be- 
come immortal." 

"  Without  hands  or  feet  He  speeds,  He  takes.  Without  eye  He 
sees,  without  ear  hears.  He  is  all-knowing,  yet  known  by  none  ; 
undecaying,  omnipresent,  unborn  ;  revealed  by  meditation  ;  whoso 
knows  Him,  the  all-blessed,  dwelling  in  the  heart  of  all  beings,  has 
everlasting  peace." 2 

"  He  is  not  apprehended  by  the  eye,  not  by  devotions  nor  by 
rites  ;  but  he  whose  mind  is  purified  by  the  light  of  knowledge 
beholds  the  undivided  One,  who  knows  the  soul.  Inconceivable 
by  thought,  more  distant  than  all  distant  things,  and  also  near, 
dwelling  here  in  the  heart  for  him  who  can  behold."  3 

"  The  wise  who  behold  this  Soul  as  the  eternal  among  transient 
things  ;  as  the  intelligent  among  those  that  know  ;  as  that  which, 
though  one,  grants  the  prayers  of  many,  —  the  wise,  who  behold  the 
one  ruler  and  inner  soul  of  all,  as  dwelling  within  themselves, 
obtain  eternal  bliss  ;  they,  not  others."  4 

"  This  is  dearer  than  a  son,  than  wealth,  than  all  things  ;  for  this 
is  deeper  within.  Whoever  worships  the  soul  as  dear,  to  him  what 
is  dear  is  not  perishable.5     It  is  for  the  soul's  sake  that  all  are  dear.6 

"  The  soul  is  to  be  perceived  only  by  its  own  true  idea  ;  and  only 
by  him  who  declares  that  it  is  real."7 

"  Truth  alone,  not  falsehood,  conquers.  By  truth  is  opened  the 
road  which  the  rishis  trod,  whose  desires  are  satisfied,  the  supreme 
abode. " 8 

i  Brihad,  IV.  iv.  22.  »  Svetasvatara,  III.  IV.  VI. 

3  Mundaka,  III.  i.  7,  8.  *  Katha,  V.  12,  13. 

6  Brihad,  I.  iv.  8.  «  Brihad,  II.  iv.  5. 

'  Katha,  VI.  12,  13.  8  Mundaka,  III.  6. 


35§  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

"  Let  one  worship  the  Soul  as  his  place,  and  his  work  shall  not 
perish.  Whatsoever  he  desires  from  the  Soul,  the  same  shall  he 
obtain."  ' 

"  He  gains  that  world  and  those  desires  which  he  imagines  in  his 
mind.  Therefore  let  one  who  desires  prosperity  worship  Him  who 
knows  the  soul." 2 

"  The  wise  who  has  studied  the  scriptures  casts  them  by,  as  he 
Soul  is  free-  who  seeks  grain  the  chaff."  3 

dom.  "  Yajnavalkya,  when  asked  how  a  Brahman  can  do  with- 

out the  sacrificial  girdle,  answered, '  The  soul  itself  is  his  girdle.'  " 4 

"  They  who  fancy  that  oblations  and  rites  are  the  highest  end  of 
man  know  not  any  thing  good.  The  foolish  ones  go  round  and 
round,  coming  back  to  decay  and  death,  oppressed  by  misery,  as 
blind  led  by  the  blind."5 

"  There  is  a  higher  and  a  lower  science  :  the  lower  is  that  of  the 
Vedas,  the  higher  that  of  the  Eternal  One." 6 

"  Worshipping  deities  as  if  these  were  apart  from  themselves,  the 
ignorant  maintain  their  gods,  as  beasts  support  a  man.  It  is  not 
pleasant  to  such  gods  that  men  should  know  Brahma,"  —  and  be 
free.7 

"  To  behold  the  soul  in  itself  alone  is  to  subdue  sin,  not  to  be 
Soul  is  moral  subdued  by  it." 8 

discipline.  "  By  holy  acts  shall  one  become  holy,  by  evil  ones  evil. 

As  his  desire,  so  his  resolve  ;  as  his  resolve,  so  his  work  ;  as  his 
work,  so  his  reward."9 

"  Whoso  has  not  ceased  from  evil  ways  shall  not  obtain  true 
soul."  10 

If  prayer  is  aspiration  to  become  one  with  ideal  life, 
Soul  is  then  this  Vedantic  pantheism  is  itself  essential- 
prayer.  ]y  a  prayer#  And  its  religious  earnestness  lifts 
up  the  old  eternal  cry  for  guidance,  help,  and  rest. 
There  is  an  old  hymn  perhaps  relating  to  the  last 
hours  of  life,  which  is  often  quoted  in  the  Upanishads. 

1  Brihad,  I.  iv.  15.  2  Mundaka,  III.  10. 

8  Amritanada  Up.,  V.  iS.  «  Jabala,  Weber,  Indisclie  Studien,  II   75. 

8  Mundaka  Up.,  I.  ii.  7,  8,  10.  «  Mundaka  Up.,  I.  i.  5. 
7  Brihad,  I.  iv.  10.                                       8  Bri/uid,  IV.  iv.  23. 

9  Ibid.,  IV.  iv.  5.  10  KatJia  Up.,  II.  24. 


VEDANTA.  359 

It  appeals  to  deity  as  dwelling  in  the  Sun,  whose 
outward  light  is  invoked  to  give  way  to  its  spiritual 
meaning  :  — 

"  To  me,  whose  duty  is  truth,  open,  O  Sun  !  upholder  of  the 
world,  the  entrance  to  truth,  hidden  by  thy  vase  of  dazzling  light. 
Withhold  thy  splendors  that  I  may  behold  thy  true  being.  For  I 
am  immortal.  The  same  soul  that  is  in  thee  am  I.  Let  my  spirit 
obtain  immortality,  then  let  my  body  be  consumed.  Remember 
thy  actions,  remember,  O  my  mind !  Guide,  O  Agni  !  to  bliss.  O 
God,  all-knowing !    deliver  from  the  crooked  path  of  sin."  ' 

"As  the  birds  repair,  O  beloved  !  to  a  tree  to  dwell  there,  so  all 
this  universe  to  the  Supreme." 2 

"  From  the  unreal,  lead  me  to  the  real;  from  darkness  to  light, 
from  death  to  immortality.     This  uttered  overcomes  the  world."  3 

"  There  is  no  end  to  misery,  save  in  knowledge  of  God." 4 

ttc  Thrice,'  let  the  saint  say, '  I  have  renounced  all.'  "  6 
What  was  this  absolute  renunciation  ?  It  did  Renuncia- 
not  mean  surrender  of  self-indulgence  for  the  tion- 
sake  of  practical  uses.  It  meant  rejection  of  the 
senses  and  the  world  altogether.  His  problem  was 
to  deliver  his  soul  from  all  that  was  conditional,  de- 
pendent, transient.  And  since  he  tracked  these  forms 
of  experience  through  every  phase  of  his  being,  it 
would  seem  at  first  sight  as  if  he  deliberately  sought 
self-annihilation.  But  this  could  not  be  true  in  any 
recognized  sense  of  the  word.  For  he  called  the 
highest  goal  for  which  he  strove  beatitude,  and  its 
path  emancipation.  Its  bliss  was  "knowing  God,"  its 
end  "immortal  life." 

"  A  hundred  fold  the  bliss  of  those  who  are  gods  by  birth,  is  one 
joy  of  him  who  reaches  the  world  of  Prajapati.  But  the  world  of 
Brahma  is  the  highest  bliss  of  all."  6 


1  Brihad,    V.  xiv;    Vayasaneya  Sank.  Up.,  15-18.  *  Prasna  Up.,  IV. 

3  Brihad,  I.  iii.  28.     Yaj-ur  Veda  Mantras.  *  Svetasvatara.  VI.  20. 

6  Arunika  Up.  (Weber,  II.  17S).  6  Brihad,  IV.  iii.  33. 


360  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

I  find  no  evidence  that  earnest  men  have  ever  made 
Not  self-  a  religion  out  of  the  desire  of  nonentity.  Mys- 
annihiiation.  ^cs  have  always  yearned  to  lose  the  sense  of 
separate  and  limited  selfhood  in  the  depths  of  eter- 
nal and  absolute  being ;  and  they  have,  as  invari- 
ably, been  charged  with  desiring  to  abolish  personal- 
ity. And  the  charge  has  usually  come  from  those  to 
whom  the  Absolute  and  Eternal  was,  as  nearly  as 
could  well  be,  non-existent. 

To  me  it  is  quite  incredible  that  a  religious  philoso- 
phy, so  absorbed  in  the  idea  of  Infinite  Life  as  this  is, 
should  aim  at  destroying,  in  any  absolute  sense,  that 
very  consciousness  which  revealed  it.  And  can  we 
suppose  any  one  to  be  longing  for  nothing  with  his 
whole  heart  and  soul  ?  Great  efforts  have  been  made 
to  prove  the  Buddhist  Nirvana  such  an  irrationality 
as  this.1  But  they  are  far  from  satisfactory,  and  do 
not  prove  any  thing  but  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
making  the  mystical  consciousness  of  the  Oriental 
mind  stand  in  the  clear  definite  moulds  of  Western 
thought. 

It  should  be  fully  recognized  that  this  ardent  devo- 
T.,  .  „  „  tion  sought  not  death,  but  life;  not  unreality, 

Life  in  God.  »  J  ' 

but  reality ;  to  escape  error,  perturbation, 
change ;  conceit  of  the  understanding,  idolatry  of 
self,  absorption  in  sense,  and  slavery  to  things.  "  Our 
fire  is  piety,  and  in  it  I  burn  the  wood  of  duality  ; 
instead  of  a  sheep,  I  sacrifice  egotism.  This  is  my 
Horn."  2 

The  Alexandrian  school  of  Greek  thought  was 
pervaded  by  this  Oriental  thirst  for  the  One  and  Eter- 


1  Burnouf,  Koeppen,  St.  Hilaire.     But  Duncker,  Mohl,  and  Miiller  have  fully  shown 
the  weakness  of  their  interpretation. 

2  A  Vedantist  sage ;  quoted  in  Dabistan,  ch.  ii.  4.     Horn  is  the  sacrificial  butter. 


VEDANTA.  361 

nal.  It  pursued  this  "ecstasy,"  or  identity  of  the 
soul  with  its  ideal  object  as  the  only  reality,  with  an 
earnestness  of  faith  of  which  the  Enneads  of  Plotinus 
remain  a  marvellous  monument  for  all  time.  And 
the  same  spirit  gave  religious  fervor  to  the  noblest 
minds  of  Christian  ages ;  to  the  freest  of  those  whom 
the  Church  has  refused  to  recognize,  from  age  to 
age ;  a  mystic  passion  for  the  Infinite  that,  however 
unacknowledged,  has  been  the  fountain  of  the  ideal 
life  in  man. 

The  same  in  substance,  however  remote  the  practi- 
cal Western  mind  from  the  life  of  the  East,  is  Augus- 
tine's ejaculation  :  "Thou  hast  made  us,  O  Lord  !  for 
thyself;  and  our  souls  are  restless  till  they  return  to 
Thee."  Mysteriously  involved  in  the  sense  of  immor- 
tality is  a  secret  reminiscence  of  the  "  immortal  sea 
which  brought  us  hither."  It  haunts  all  religious 
imagination  from  the  Vedic  hymns  down  to  Tauler 
and  the  Theologia  Germanica ;  to  Wordsworth  and 
Emerson,  and  the  devout  sonnets  of  Henry  Vaughan 
and  Jones  Very.     Say  the  Upanishads  :  — 

"  He  who  has  found  God  has  ceased  from  all  wisdom  of  his  own  ; 
as  one  puts  out  a  torch  and  lays  it  down,  when  the  place  he  sought 
in  the  darkness  is  found."  1 

"  As  the  flowing  rivers  come  to  their  end  in  the  sea,  losing  name 
and  form,  so,  liberated  from  name  and  form,  proceeds  the  wise  to 
the  Divine  Soul."  2 

"  By  him  who  thinks  Brahma  is  beyond  comprehension  is  Brah- 
ma known.  He  who  thinks  Him  comprehended  does  not  know 
Him.  Known  as  the  one  nature  in  every  thought,  He  is  truly 
known.     By  this  knowledge  comes  immortal  life."  3 

So  sings  the  Sufi  poet :  — 

"  O  Thou  of  whom  all  is  the  manifestation, 
Thou,  independent  of  '  thou  and  we,'  Thyself '  thou  and  we,'  — 

1  Amritanada.  2  Mundaka.  s  Kena. 


362  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Thy  nature  is  the  spring  of  thy  being :  whatever  is,  is  Thou  ; 

We  all  are  billows  in  the  ocean  of  thy  being  ; 

We  are  a  small  compass  of  thy  manifested  nature."1 

And  so  the  Christian  mystic  :  — 

"  God  is  a  mighty  sea,  unfathomed  and  unbound : 
Oh,  in  this  blessed  deep  may  all  my  soul  be  drowned  !  " 2 

Here  to  abide,  in  the  Spirit  "  that  is  without  strife, 
without  decay,  without  death,  and  without  fear,"3  was 
the  goal  of  that  old  ceaseless  yearning  to  escape  what 
was  called  the  "return  to  births,"  as  involved  in  the 
"bonds  of  actions."  In  a  similar  light  I  would  inter- 
pret a  little  devotee  song,  written  by  a  late  missionary 
at  Benares,  embodying  this  Oriental  piety.  Its  appeal 
to  the  religious  sentiment  shows  the  universality  of 
the  idea  better  than  any  philosophical  statement  could 
do:  — 

"  The  snowflake  that  glistens  at  morn  on  Kailasa, 
Dissolved  by  the  sunbeams,  descends  to  the  plain  : 
Then,  mingling  with  Gunga,  it  flows  to  the  ocean, 
And  lost  in  its  waters  returns  not  again. 

On  the  rose-leaf  at  sunrise  bright  glistens  the  dewdrop, 
That  in  vapor  exhaled  falls  in  nourishing  rain  : 
Then  in  rills  back  to  Gunga  through  green  fields  meanders, 
Till  onward  it  flows  to  the  ocean  again. 

A  snowflake  still  whitens  the  peak  of  Kailasa, 
But  the  snowflake  of  yesterday  flows  to  the  main  ; 
At  dawning  a  dewdrop  still  hangs  on  the  rose-leaf, 
But  the  dewdrop  of  yesterday  comes  not  again. 

The  soul  that  is  freed  from  the  bondage  of  nature, 
Escapes  from  illusions  of  joy  and  of  pain  ; 
And,  pure  as  the  flame  that  is  lost  in  the  sunbeams, 
Ascends  into  God,  and  returns  not  again. 

It  conies  not  and  goes  not ;  it  comes  not  again."4 

1  Dabistan-  2  Angelm  Silesius.  3  Prasnas  V.  7. 

4  Buyers's  Recollections  of  Nortltern  India. 


VEDANTA.  363 

I  have  indicated  some  of  the  realities  the  Vedanta 
philosophy  was  capable  of  seeing:  I  must  Defect  of 
note,  also,  what  it  failed  to  see.  And  here  PurP°se- 
may  be  recalled  an  expressive  myth  which  betrays 
the  defect  of  self-conscious  purpose  and  active  will 
in   Hindu  character. 

All  manifestation  is  Brahma's  "play,"  returning  into 
his  essence  when  the  sport  fatigues.  In  this  childlike 
mythology,  he  must  have  alternation  of  waking  and 
sleep.  The  life  of  the  worlds,  though  it  last  for  ages 
of  ages,  is  but  "  Brahma's  day  : "  a  night  must  come 
when  he  must  repose.  That  life  fades  when  he  slum- 
bers, expands  when  he  awakes  ;  as  when  a  torch  is 
alternately  kindled  and  extinguished,  the  light  alter- 
nately radiates  from  the  centre  and  is  recalled.  In 
the  Hebrew  myth  of  creation,  the  need  of  rest  is  as- 
cribed to  Jehovah  also.  But  what  we  specially  note 
in  the  Brahmanic  conception  is  the  absence  of  any 
idea  of  -purfose  in  this  universal  Life.  It  proclaims 
no  law  of  growth.  It  stirs  no  hope  of  human  ad- 
vancement. The  spirit  wakes,  the  spirit  sleeps. 
That  is  all.  Nowhere  struggle  or  endeavor ;  nowhere 
work ;  nowhere  progress  recognized  as  the  endless 
fact,  the  meaning  of  the  world.  On  the  contrary, 
there  is  involved  in  this  movement  a  gradual  degen- 
eracy. And  we  find  indeed  the  definite  belief  that 
man  loses  successively,  in  each  of  four  consecutive 
ages,  a  quarter  of  the  duration  of  his  life :  crime 
gradually  increases,  and  the  prevailing  virtue  is  of  a 
lower  grade.  In  the  first  age,  this  virtue  is  devotion  ; 
in  the  second,  knowledge ;  in  the  third,  sacrifice ;  in 
the  fourth,  only  almsgiving,  as  an  external  form. 
And  so  the  only  possible  counteraction  to  this  ten- 
dency, for  the  few  who  can  escape  it,  is  reverence  for 


364  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  immemorial  customs  of  that  first,  happier  age. 
Have  we  not  here  a  philosophy  of  despair? 

Yet  a  way  of  release  from  this  apparent  absence  of 
all  motive  and  purpose  was  really  found  in  the  ardent 
aspiration  to  union  with  deity,  which  has  been  de- 
scribed. Nor  does  confidence  in  the  power  of  spiritual 
achievement  seem  to  have  been  wanting,  notwithstand- 
ing the  theory  that  placed  the  ideal  of  such  achieve- 
ment in  the  past.  For  Brahmanical  faith,  however, 
the  sphere  of  effort  was  not  the  visible  world. 

That  all  its  earnestness  and  spirituality  could  not 
Sources  of  save  this  piety  from  ascetic  extravagance  was 
modem-free-  owjng  to  the  fact  that  it  could  not  be  directed 

dom  from  » 

asceticism,  to  practical  aims  and  social  achievement.  But 
our  own  interest  in  the  visible  and  transient  world  is 
not  a  legacy  that  we  have  derived  from  any  Oriental 
religion.  We  owe  it  neither  to  Judaism  nor  to  Chris- 
tianity ;  for  the  one  did  comparatively  little  to  bring 
out  the  uses  of  the  outward  order  of  nature  ;  and  the 
other,  in  the  person  of  its  founder,  pronounced  the 
world  to  be  under  doom  of  speedy  destruction.  Juda- 
ism indeed  has  given  an  impulse  to  man's  active 
powers  by  its  idea  of  creation  as  an  instant  result  of 
divine  purpose  and  will.  Hebrew  belief  in  the  per- 
sonal energy  and  authority  of  God  has  doubtless 
helped  develop  corresponding  qualities  in  the  West- 
ern mind  ;  and  the  humane  motives  for  action,  empha- 
sized by  Christianity,  have  seconded  the  practical 
tendencies  of  modern  times.  But,  on  the  whole,  we 
owe  our  faith  in  this  visible  world  to  Greek  liberty  and 
Roman  law,  to  modern  science  and  art,  and  to  the 
opportunities  of  social  good  involved  in  the  circulation 
of  thought  and  intercourse  of  vigorous  nations.  It  is 
mainly  the  gift  of  energetic  races,  and  depends  less 
on  religious  than  on  ethnological  causes. 


VEDANTA.  365 

In  the  circumstances  of  the  Hindu,  it  was  his  special 
glory,  as  well  as  his  peril,  that  every  thing  oftheop- 
flowed  to  abstract  ideas,  to  pure  thought.     As  ?_0SIt,e  . 

7  .        •*  o  Hindu  ten- 

far  back  as  the  Greek  invasion,  Megasthenes  dency. 

found  the  Hindus  spending  their  time  in  talking  about 
life  and  death.1  They  are  still,  in  their  degeneracy, 
natural  metaphysicians.  Dogma  is  their  staff  of  life. 
They  draw  water  out  of  invisible  wells,  as  we  do  out 
'of  visible  ones,  for  daily  drink.  The  deserts  swarm 
with  anchorets,  practising  strange  rites  and  muttering 
spells.  The  city  streets  are  perambulated  by  painted 
mendicants,  rubbed  down  with  ashes,  and  carrying 
skulls  for  drinking  vessels.  Ragged  gosains  sit  by 
the  waysides  and  under  the  trees,  unfolding  super- 
sensual  ideas  to  rustic  academies,2  and  visionary 
fakirs  ply  them  with  fables  and  dreams.  The  very 
children  learn  theological  and  philosophical  sutras 
mechanically,  as  we  do  alphabet  and  multiplication- 
table.3  They  are  still  demonized  by  abstraction ; 
despising  practical  limitations,  ignoring  tangible 
facts. 

Of  course  this  national  temperament  has  its  higher 
and  its  lower  forms.  And  as  the  passion  for  invisible 
mysteries  degenerated  into  jugglery  and  magic,  so  it 
rose  into  the  mystical  aspirations  of  these  poet  philoso- 
phers and  seers.  There  is  indeed  no  form  of  religion 
thus  far  which  has  not  had  analogous  results,  if  not 
in  these  extreme  forms.  Christianity,  for  example,  has 
borne  supernaturalism  and  ecclesiasticism  as  well  as 
aspiration  and  sacrifice  and  love,  having  sown  germs 
of  bondage  as  well  as  of  freedom. 


1  Strabo,  XV.  59.  2  See  Allen's  India,  p.  404;  Buyers's  Northern  India. 

8  Miiller,  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  74. 


3^6  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

The  effort  of  Hindu  devotees  to  escape  the  senses 
Causes  of  and  the  world  of  action  has  already  been  in 
asceticism.  pa,t  explained  as  a  protest  against  the  charms 
and  temptations  of  a  torrid  zone.  These  ascetic 
disciplines  were  commensurate  with  the  forces  they 
sought  to  overcome.  The  very  word  for  their  aus- 
terity was  tafias,  or  heat.  They  did  not  need  to 
carry  the  imagination  into  other  worlds,  in  order  to 
locate  their  purgatories  of  fire.  They  recognized  this 
world  of  sensuous  nature  as  the  thing  they  had  to 
master.  •  Their  valor  and  faith  lay  in  pronouncing  the 
ever-present  foe  of  freedom  and  purity  an  illusion, 
destined  to  vanish  after  all  in  the  sole  reality  of  spirit. 

If  in  those  times  and  in  such  a  climate,  there  was 
wanting  practical  force  to  make  nature  represent 
moral  and  intellectual  purpose,  it  was  certainly  much 
to  believe  so  utterly  as  these  ascetics  did  in  the  power 
of  the  ideal  to  overcome  the  world,  to  disenchant  the 
soul  from  subjection  to  its  masteries  and  spells. 
At  the  heart  of  Hindu  religious  consciousness  was 
faith  in  the  omnipotence  of  thought.  Let  us  note  the 
significance  of   this  faith. 

The  meaning  of  the  world  for  each  of  us  lies  in  his 
own  thought  concerning  it.     What  the  mind 

The  pn-  o  » 

macyof  is  to  itself,  such  is  the  universe  to  the  mind. 
The  inward  makes  the  outward.  "  We  receive 
but  what  we  give."  In  the  child,  "that  best  philoso- 
pher, who  yet  doth  keep  his  heritage,"  the  truth  we 
here  emphasize  exists  as  unconscious  instinct,  and 
implicit  wisdom.  He  is,  in  his  own  sphere,  the 
"  mighty  prophet,  seer  blest."  iiut  it  finds  manlier 
play  in  the  conscious  use  of  materials  for  ideal  ends. 
To  this  primacy  of  the  inward  forces,  to  this  their 


VEDANTA.  367 

power  of  creating  the  world  in  their  own  likeness, 
even  the  clearest  practical  perception  and  the  largest 
social  experience  must  hold  fast,  or  else  the  "  yoke  " 
comes  with  the  task ;  a  weight,  "  heavy  as  frost,  and 
deep  as  life."  The  secret  of  power  is  to  refer  circum- 
stance and  surrounding  to  the  consciousness,  as  cen- 
tral and  determinative  force,  and  to  provide  that  this 
light  by  which  we  see,  this  all-shaping,  all-construct- 
ing genius  of  life  within  us,  maintain  itself  at  its 
best. 

Now,  since  this  inherent  creative  function  of  thought 
must  needs  make  the  outward  world  in  some  form 
confess  its  sway,  in  what  can  its  dignity  consist  in  a 
state  of  society  where  there  are  no  practical  materials 
to  which  it  can  be  applied  ?  Plainly,  in  concentrat- 
ing on  itself,  and  in  affirming  itself  to  be  the  sole 
reality.  In  other  words,  the  ascetic  maintains  self- 
respect,  through  annihilating  the  senses,  or  the  per- 
ception of  them,  by  his  mental  effort.  He  keeps 
thought  sovereign  by  proving  its  sufficiency  for  itself, 
where  outward  material  is  wanting.  Yet  as  actual 
details,  elements,  and  forces,  however  strenuously 
denied,  are  inevitable,  as  is  also  the  need  of  some 
kind  of  mastery  over  them,  so  their  reactions  on  such 
unbalanced  idealism  turned  it  into  a  claim  to  the  pos- 
session of  their  secret  springs  through  concentration 
of  thought  alone.  Thaumaturgy,  the  preternatural 
gift  of  wonder-working  with  elements  and  forms,  has 
simply  meant  that  thought  shall  master  things,  if 
not  through  knowledge  of  their  practical  uses,  then 
through  its  own  inherent  right  to  master  them. 
Thought,  it  says,  is  primal,  creative  :  things  are  its 
shadow,  its  echo,  its  plastic  material,  and  should 
obey. 


36S  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

This  is  the  divine  element  that  shines  through  the 
in  thau-  fantastic  disciplines  of  Hindu  Yogis  and  Chris- 
maturgy.  tjan  pillar  saints ;  behind  the  absurdity,  the 
spiritual  pride,  the  insanity  even,  of  superstition,  that 
are  of  course  no  less  evident.  The  ascetic  has  chosen 
his  realm,  and  to  his  own  thought  he  is  master  of  it. 
Wherever  he  concentrates  his  thought,  there,  for  him- 
self and  to  his  own  consciousness,  he  shall  control 
phenomena.  Thinking  devoutly  on  the  sun,  it  shall 
yield  him  universal  sight ;  on  the  pole-star,  it  shall 
concede  him  all  star  powers.  Carry  mind  to  the 
bottom  of  the  throat,  and  hunger  shall  cease ;  to  the 
space  between  his  eyebrows,  and  external  contact  is 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  Let  it  desire  freedom  from 
the  body,  and  he  shall  be  free  of  all  elements  and 
forms.  Mind,  in  concentration  and  essence,  is  here 
the  sovereign  power.  Now  if  here  instead  of  mind, 
you  put  the  word  faith,  you  have  the  Hebrew  claim 
of  miraculous  power ;  whether  to  change  stones  into 
bread,  or  water  into  wine. 

So  with  the  fate  that  tied  souls  to  transmigration. 
Was  it  not  the  consequence  of  interested  motives ;  of 
thought,  wandering  from  its  centre,  fettered  to  things? 
"  Think  on  freedom  then,  on  the  life  beyond  self,"  says 
the  ascetic,  "and  the  bonds  are  broken,  the  very  wheel 
of  birth  and  fate  and  form  is  dissolved."  Do  we  smile 
at  the  ignorance?  That  we  may  easily  enough  do. 
But  there  is  more  than  we  have  noted,  behind  it. 
There  is  intuition  of  the  rights  of  thought,  of  will,  of 
soul.  It  is  the  childhood  of  a  gigantic  energy ;  the 
germ  of  liberty  and  progress  ;  none  the  less  so  because 
crude  and  ignorant,  and  for  ages  not  finding  condi- 
tions of  higher  development.  And  the  materialism 
that  can  only  ridicule  it  has  left  out  of  its  own  phil- 


VEDANTA.  369 

osophy  the  element  that  philosophy  can  least  afford  to 
spare. 

Asceticism  has  its  unheroic  side,  not  peculiar  to  the 
Hindu.     The  Vedanta  text  has  been  virtually  , 

J     Asceticism. 

the  burden  of  world-weariness  and  listlessness 
in  all  times.  "  What  relish  for  enjoyment  in  this 
unsound  body,  assailed  by  desire  and  passion,  avarice 
and  illusion,  sorrow  and  fear,  absence  from  the  loved, 
presence  of  the  hated,  disease,  leanness,  old  age, 
and  death."1  Or  hear  the  old  Hebrew  preacher: 
"  The  thoughts  of  mortal  man  are  miserable,  and 
his  devices  uncertain :  for  the  earthly  body  weigheth 
down  the  soul."  How  large  a  proportion  of  Christian 
preaching,  from  first  to  last,  has  whined  over  the 
vanity  of  the  world  and  the  flesh  !  The  practical 
genius  of  the  West,  its  opportunity  of  culture  and 
construction,  at  last  makes  this  Christian  other-world- 
liness  quite  intolerable ;  though  there  are  still  creeds 
that,  like  the  old  Egyptian  monks,  are  watering  its 
dry  sticks  in  the  sand. 

But  we  are  to  remember  that  a  religion  that  should 
dare  to  claim  the  state,  market,  scientific  progress,  and 
social  reform,  as  free  fields  of  natural  human  develop- 
ment, could  not  possibly  have  existed  till  this  present 
time  of  secular  interests  and  largest  ethnic  inter- 
course. The  Oriental  world  had  neither  gift  nor 
place  for  this  hope  in  visible  things.  From  India  to 
Palestine,  from  the  Veda  to  the  Gospels,  why  should 
they  not  have  lacked  substance,  to  the  watching  soul, 
like  a  vapor  that  was  soon  to  pass  away?  Social 
aspiration  and  moral  enterprise  could  not  find  play, 
even  "  on  midnight's   sky  of  rain  to  paint  a   golden 

1  See  also  Yaj'naz).,  III.  8,  106.  "He  who  seeks  substance  in  human  life,  which  is 
pithless  as  the  Kadali  stem,  and  hollow  as  a  bubble,  is  without  reason." 

24 


370  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

morrow."  And  as  the  Hebrew  Christ  fastened  his 
hope  on  a  speedy  "  coming  of  the  end,"  so  the  Hindu 
saint  put  his  "  golden  morrow  "  into  that  Absolute  Life 
in  which  all  worlds  should  sink  like  a  dream.  And 
to  reach  that  Life,  what  absolute  surrender  his  disci- 
plines made  of  mind  and  body  and  will  to  an  ideal 
good  !  Asceticism  was,  there  at  least,  a  brave  and 
believing  religion. 

This  faith  in  the  rights  of  mind  over  matter,  which 
Germs  of  in  its  lower  forms  becomes  asceticism  and 
ndo-Eu-     Tnagic,  is  the  germ  of  that  intellectual  grasp 

ropean  O      '  o  or 

thought.  and  subtlety  which  has  lifted  the  Indo- 
European  race  above  the  rest  of  mankind  in  what 
depends  on  the  brain  alone.  Hindu  speculation  holds 
not  only  germs,  but  even  types,  and  in  many  respects 
very  noble  ones,  of  the  deepest  philosophical  systems 
of  the  West.  It  has  been  said,  doubtless  in  this  sense, 
to  have  "  exhausted  all  the  forms  which  other  times 
and  peoples  appropriate  severally  to  themselves."1 
Liberty  of  thought  was,  for  Hindu  purposes,  perfect, 
in  the  sacerdotal  class  in  India.2  The  contentions  of 
the  schools  afford  ample  proof  of  this.  There  was 
nothing  to  limit  their  speculative  genius.  They  be- 
lieved the  Infinite  ever  accessible  to  the  seeker ;  and 
the  traditions  and  holy  books  were  but  helps  on  the 
way,  to  be  set  aside  for  a  nobler  goal. 

So  in  this  teeming  brain,  haunted  by  a  sense  of  the 
eternal  and  unseen,  there  rose  an  earlier,  or 
Hindu  sys-  perhaps  we  should  say  rather  an  Oriental, 
tems.  Platonism,  Stoicism,  Mysticism,  Cynicism, 
Pietism.  Forms  of  thought  and  faith  kindred  to  these 
Western  systems  have  been  fermenting  in  the  Hindu 

1  Wagner,  Attgemeine  Mythol ,  p.  88.  2  See  Muir,  III.  57. 


VEDANTA.  371 

mind  from  the  times  of  the  later  Rig  Veda  hymns 
down  to  the  present  day.  Its  Brahma  holds  in  solu- 
tion, more  or  less  vaguely  defined,  the  Orphic  hymn 
and  the  Eleatic  philosophy.  Here,  in  Eastern  form 
indeed,  and  without  Hellenic  energy  of  will,  is  the 
mystical  Orphic  "Zeus,  first,  midst,  and  last;  Zeus, 
element  and  ruler;  Zeus,  essence  and  father; 
Zeus,  one  and  all."  Here  the  "  Kosmos  "  of  Xeno- 
phanes,  "that  sees,  hears,  and  thinks;"  his  "all-rul- 
ing, spheric  Unity  of  Mind,  incomprehensible,  with- 
out beginning,  end,  or  change  ;  "  and  the  "  Ens  unum" 
of  Parmenides,  whereinto  all  differences  dissolved. 
Here  the  Anaxagorean  "Nous,"  or  Mind,  "ruler  of 
all."  Here  negation  of  the  manifold ;  Heraclitean 
sense  of  universal  flux ;  Zenonic  dialectics,  proving 
that  there  could  be  no  substantial  being  in  this 
perpetual  evanescence.  Here  the  Western  Cynic  is 
foreshadowed  in  the  Eastern  Gymnosophist.1  Here 
Philo's  Logos  (kvdiadsvog  xal  ngocpoQixog) ',  essential  and 
manifest,  embracing  all.  Here  Seneca's  "All,  one 
only,  and  deity."2  Here  Marcus  Aurelius's  "One 
God,  one  substance,  one  law,  one  common  reason, 
and  one  truth."3  Here  the  "ecstasy"  of  Plotinus  ;  here 
Persian  Sufism,  mystic  Jelalleddin  and  Sadi ;  here 
Berkeley's  idealism,  and  Malebranche's  vision  of  "  all 
in  God."  Here,  without  its  scientific  basis  or  its  intense 
practical  vitality,  Goethe's  sense  of  a  universal  cosmic 
Soul. 

And  here  Hegel's  identity  of  Thought  and  Being, 
of  subject  and  object.  The  Vedanta  must  have 
influenced  Plotinus :  it  anticipates  Spinoza.  The 
Sankhya  foreshadows  at  once  the  skeptics,  the  posi- 

1  On  this  point  see  Grote's  Plato,  ch.  xxxviii.  •  Epistles,  92. 

3  Meditations,  VII   9. 


372  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

tivists,  the  rationalists,  the  quietists,  of  later  times. 
An  earlier  Kantian  criticism,  as  elaborate  too  in  its 
way,  denies  the  certitude  of  the  understanding,  yet 
holds  fast  to  the  rock  of  moral  sanctions.  An  earlier 
Fichtean  intuition  affirms  selfishness  to  be  the  false  and 
unreal,  and  pursues  the  libert}'  of  spiritual  obedience 
as  "the  blessed  life."  All  these  are  of  course  in  forms 
peculiar  to  Hindu  genius. 

Here  also  is  the  substance  of  all  great  philosophies 
of  evil,  —  holding  that  it  is  the  condition  of  finiteness, 
or  comes  of  things  taken  in  fragments,  seen  in  part ; 
that  the  world  must  not  be  conceived  apart  from  God, 
if  we  would  know  it  as  it  is. 

And  here  are  unmistakable  forms  of  spiritual  cour- 
age and  trust,  and  all-controlling  aspirations  to  the 
highest  thought,  as  the  soul's  native  place  ;  to  absolute 
good,  as  rounding  the  universe  and  leaving  out  no  life 
that  is  or  can  be  ;  aspirations  which  foreshadow  Chris- 
tian ideals  of  the  divine,  and  yield,  as  do  the  best  of 
these  also,  hints  of  a  purer  worship  yet  to  come,  that 
shall  supplant  defects  which  are  constantly  character- 
istic of  Christian  thought ;  and  especially  that  imper- 
fect sense  of  the  essential  unity  of  all  life,  and  that 
lack  of  intellectual  liberty  which  must  ever  result  from 
all  exclusive  claims  of  personal  or  historical  authority 
over  the  religious  nature  of  man. 


II. 

sAnkhya. 


SANKHYA. 


/^VUR  sketch  of  Religious  Philosophy  thus  far, 
^^  while  illustrative  of  the  general  features  of 
Hindu  thought,  has  represented  in  the  main  what  is 
called  the  Vedanta  or  Orthodox  school  of  belief. 
This  is  founded  on  the  Vedas,  as  well  as  most  con- 
genial with  the  national  mind.  Yet  we  have  already 
seen  that  it  was  capable  of  emancipating  itself  from 
idolatry  of  scripture,  and  affirming  the  intimacy  of 
man  with  God  through  his  own  essential  nature.  We 
have  now  to  examine  a  different  path  to  the  affirmation 
of  spiritual  being  and  sovereignty ;  one  in  which 
these  elements  of  freedom  are  still  more  prominent, 
the  Sankhya  system  of  Kapila. 

Little  is  known  of  Kapila  ;  whose  name,  a  synonym 
of  Fire,  hovers,  like  the  names  of  other  found-  KaPiiaand 
ers  of  Hindu  schools,  between  mythology  and  the  sankhya- 
history.  He  is  held  by  some  to  have  been  an 
incarnation  of  Agni ;  by  others,  of  Vishnu.  The  ori- 
gin of  his  system  cannot  be  definitely  assigned  to  any 
special  date.  More  important  than  any  such  histori- 
cal determination  is  the  fact  that  its  persistence  and 
productivity  show  it  to  be  a  natural  and  spontaneous 
growth  of  the  Aryan  mind. 

Like  all  other  systems  of  Oriental  philosophy,  it  is 


37^  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

comprised  in  a  series  of  aphorisms,  or  Sutras,  adapted 
for  retention  in  the  memory,  and  as  texts  for  instruc- 
tion. And  these  aphorisms,  though  already  carefully 
studied  and  expounded  by  scholars  like  Colebrooke, 
Wilson,  Weber,  Miiller,  and  Ballantyne,  are  still  much 
obscured  by  an  exceedingly  compact  and  elliptical 
style,  and  by  the  difficulty  of  translating  and  even  of 
comprehending  modes  of  thought  and  speech  peculiar 
to  the  Oriental  mind.1 

The  earnestness  with  which  Oriental  studies  are 
now  pursued,  both  in  Europe  and  the  East,  justify  the 
hope  that  we  shall  soon  possess  ample  data  for  ap- 
preciating the  vast  store  of  philosophical  germs  and 
developments  contained  in  the  six  great  Hindu  sys- 
tems, or  darsanas,  of  which  the  Sankhya  is  the  most 
practical,  scientific,  and  consequent,  and,  as  some 
think,  the  oldest.2  It  is  for  these  reasons,  as  well  as 
from  its  apparent  attitude  as  the  opposite  pole  to  the 
religious  philosophy  of  the  Vedanta,  that  I  have 
selected  it  from  among  these  different  schools  for 
special  presentment,  according  to  my  apprehension  of 
its  meaning. 

Nothing  we  know   of   the   whole  body  of   Hindu 

philosophy  is  more  impressive  than  the  unity 

in  Hindu     of  its  aim.     Covering  the  whole  field  of  specu- 

p   osop  y.  }ative  thought,  seeking  to  unfold  the  mystery 

of  the  universe  from  every  point  of  view,  these  schools 

1  The  purpose  of  the  present  work  is  satisfied  by  presenting  such  general  idea  of  the 
substance  of  the  Sankhya  as  can  be  derived  from  the  results  of  these  labors ;  and  especially 
from  the  translation  and  commentary  of  Dr.  Ballantyne  in  the  Bibliotheca  Indica,  printed 
at  Calcutta  in  1S62-65.  Of  great  value  also  for  the  comprehension  of  these  Sutras  is  the 
Sankhya  Karika.,  (seventy  Memorial  Sentences,  definitive  of  the  system),  which  has 
been  translated  with  commentaries,  native  and  other,  by  Professor  Wilson.  Sutra  is 
probably  from  siv,  to  sew,  and  refers  to  the  string  with  which  the  leaves  containing  the 
aphorisms  are  bound  together. 

2  Weber,  Varies,  p.  212;  Thomson's  Bhag.  Gita,  Introd;  ch.  iii.  The  dars'anas  are 
the  two  Sankhyas,  the  two  Mimansas,  the  Nyaya,  and  the  Vais'eshika. 


SANKHYA.  377 

are  yet  penetrated  by  one  and  the  same  motive,  —  to 
reach  makti,  or  moksha,  deliverance  from  bonds. 
They  are  tributes  of  the  intellect  to  demands  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  being.  They  are  at  once,  on  the 
one  hand,  an  involuntary  confession  of  the  heavy  con- 
ditions imposed  on  human  existence  by  the  absence 
of  social  science,  and  practical  and  political  liberty, 
as  well  as  by  manifold  forms  of  moral  weakness  and 
enslavement  to  desire,  growing  out  of  constitutional 
and  climatic  disadvantages ;  and,  on  the  other,  in 
decisive  reaction  upon  these  bonds,  asserting  full 
capacity  to  ascend  into  a  sphere  of  freedom,  reality, 
and  true  vision. 

All  these  schools  are  possessed  by  the  sense  of 
moral  sequence,  of  the  inevitable  fruitage  of  every 
action  after  its  own  kind,  embodied  in  their  concep- 
tion of  karma.  On  this  proceeds  the  belief,  also 
common  to  them  all,  in  transmigration,  or  the  "bonds 
of  birth  ;  "  and  in  the  spiritual  body,  which  attends  the 
soul,  as  the  ultimation  of  its  past  life,  and  determines 
the  new  form  it  is  to  assume  at  death.  And  to  escape 
that  bondage  to  renewed  births,  by  transcending  the 
power  of  actions  to  necessitate  them,  was  a  grand 
common  purpose  of  all  Hindu  systems. 

Kapila's  first  aphorism,  "  The  end  of  man  is  the 
complete  cessation  of  the  threefold  pain,"  has 

.  .  .  Negation 

a  negative  aspect,  impressed  on  it  by  intense  and  affirma- 
consciousness  of  the  force  of  human  limita-tIon' 
tions,  which  does  little  justice  to  the  serenity  and  joy 
of  his  unfolding  process  of  emancipation,  and  to  the 
positive  assurance  of  good  that  beckons  him  onward 
like  a  sun  in  the  heavens  of  thought.  Beyond  all 
endeavors  at  rejection,  beyond  the  ceaseless  and 
radical    "  nay,   nay,"  with   which   it  met   all   definite 


378  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

forms  of  life  or  action  that  claimed  to  satisfy  its  ideal 
of  freedom,  there  was  a  clearly  positive  faith,  a  definite 
and  unswerving  aim.  And  Kapila's  negation  does 
not  essentially  differ  from  the  mystical  -promise  of  the 
Vedanta,  which  emphasizes  the  "enjoyment  of  Brah- 
ma "  as  the  end  of  man. 

Emancipation  of  the  spiritual  essence  is  the  all-em- 
bracing inspiration  of  the  Hindu  Word,  whether  the 
emphasis  be  placed  on  the  process  or  the  fulfilment. 
Of  all  its  forms  of  speculation,  this  moral  aspiration, 
this  ascent  from  pain  to  peace,  from  darkness  to  light, 
from  bonds  to  liberty,  as  the  one  imperative  and  the 
one  practicable  thing,  is  the  vital  substance.  This  is 
the  "life  more  than  meat"  of  Hindu  faith.  This 
common  purpose  is,  in  fact,  the  form  under  which 
the  grand  instinct  of  unity,  which  we  have  found  to 
be  characteristic  of  the  race,  made  itself  master  of 
their  philosophical  capacities. 

The  Nydya  of  Gotama  was  a  method  of  Logic ; 
The  other  yet  it  aimed  at  no  less  than  to  discover  what- 
systems.  soever  could  be  known,  and  how  to  attain  the 
assurance  of  reality.  Roer  characterizes  its  idea  of 
God  as  coming  "  nearest  to  the  Christian  conception 
of  an  Infinite  and  Personal  Spirit."  However  this 
may  be,  it  pursues  all  objects  of  thought;  and  with 
such  fulness  and  definiteness  in  its  forms  of  cognition 
as  to  "  allow  a  place  for  the  treatment  of  every  modern 
science  ; "  and  this  purely  in  order  to  the  "  deliverance 
of  man  from  evil."  l  The  Vaiseshika  of  Kanada  is  a 
similar  search  for  universal  certitude,  through  an  ex- 
haustive analysis  of  categories  in  many  respects  more 

1  See  the  careful  analysis  of  Hindu  Systems  by  Miiller,  in  Zeitschr-  d.  D.  M.  G.,  VI. 
pp.  1-34  and  219-242,  and  VII.  pp.  287-313;  Madhusadana's  ftevieiv  of  Hindu  Litera- 
ture in  Weber's  Indische  Stndien,  I.  1-12  ;  Duncker's  Geschichte  d.  Alterthums,  II. 
163-173- 


SANKHYA.  379 

searching  and  complete  than  those  of  Aristotle ;  and 
not  without  many  striking  divinations  of  physical  laws 
and  phenomena,  —  such  as  an  atomic  system,  the  per- 
ception of  four  primary  elements,  and  of  a  finer  ether 
as  vehicle  of  sound.1  But  this  also  was  a  baptism  of 
the  whole  field  of  human  faculty  and  resource  to  the 
same  purpose  of  spiritual  emancipation.  Kanada 
opens  his  Sutras  with  the  words  :  "  Let  us  unfold  the 
way  of  duty  "  {dharmd) .  "  Duty  is  that  which  leads 
to  wisdom  and  the  highest  good."  2  To  the  same  end 
the  Vedanta,  or  speculative  portion  of  the  Mimdnsd, 
expounds  the  meaning  of  revelation  and  the  unity  of 
the  human  soul  with  the  divine.  The  Toga  of  Patan- 
jali  describes  the  disciplines  by  which  that  union  is  to 
be  achieved.  Finally,  the  Karma  Toga  of  the  Bha- 
gavadgita  resumes  the  substance  of  all  systems  in 
philosophical  synthesis,  and  crowns  them  with  a  poetic 
vision  and  a  moral  enthusiasm,  that  seem  the  triumphal 
song  of  deliverance  by  Thought.  Such  the  earnest- 
ness of  this  old  persistent  study  of  the  laws  and  pro- 
cesses of  mind.3 


1  Roer's  Traiisl.  of  tJte  Vais'eshika  Philos.  in  Zeitschr.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  XXI.  XXII. 

2  Or,  "which  through  exaltation  leads  to  emancipation"  (Ballantyne).  —  Banerjea 
(Dialog-iies  on  Hindu  Philosophy)  pronounces  dliarma  to  be  only  "class  (or  caste)  duty." 
But  can  any  word,  used  as  the  generic  expression  of  obligation,  the  synonym  of  ought,  and 
this  in  all  systems  and  relations,  mean  nothing  else  than  the  performance  of  a  given  set  of 
observances  ?  The  same  word  is  used  by  Buddhists,  who  reject  caste,  to  denote  their  moral 
law.  It  is  used  wherever  we  should  use  the  word  ought.  But  Mr.  Banerjea  thinks  also 
(p.  280)  that  all  the  schools  are  atheistic,  because  they  are  more  or  less  pantheistic  (sic), 
and  because  they  do  not  teach  "a  Creator,  separate  from  the  world  "  (Pre/.,  ix.).  And 
his  true  sage,  the  Christian  Satyakama,  is  as  credulous  about  Bible  miracles  and  mysteries 
as  the  philosophers  he  is  refuting  are  towards  the  Vedic  ones.  "  Duty,"  in  Mr.  Banerjea's 
philosophy,  "  can  only  receive  sanction  from  the  will  of  a  personal  God."  If  this  only  mean- 
that  the  principle  of  right  doing  implies  intelligence  as  the  root  of  being,  and  fountain  of 
law,  it  is  of  course  admitted.  But  when,  in  illustration  of  the  real  meaning,  we  are  told 
that  "all  idea  of  duty  is  repudiated  in  the  Vedanta,  because  the  human  soul  and  deity  are 
there  identical"  (p.  83),  we  begin  to  comprehend  how  very  much  this  author's  notions  of  a 
"personal  God"  have  unfitted  him  to  apprehend  mystical  piety  and  the  unity  of  being 
with  its  manifestations. 

3  The  subtleties  of  Hindu  dialectics  turn  upon  formulas  and  words,  and  are  probably 


380  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

.    "This  philosophy,"  says   Gaudapada,  in   his  com- 
mentary on  the   Sankhya  Karika,  "  was  im- 

Rationalism  J  m  J 

of  the  sank- parted  to  Kapila  as  a  boat  for  crossing  the 
ocean  of  ignorance  in  which  the  world  was 
immersed."  "  Revelation,"  says  the  Karika  itself, 
"  is  ineffectual ;  for  it  is  defective  in  some  respects 
and  excessive  in  others.  To  know  how  to  dis- 
criminate perceptible  principles  from  the  One  that 
cannot  be  perceived,  and  from  the  thinking  soul,  is 
better."1 

The  Sankhya,  therefore,  is  rationalistic.  It  is  care- 
ful to  define  the  principles  of  a  true  dialectic  for  the 
discovery  of  truth.  And  its  grounds  of  proof  are 
three :  perception,  inference,  and  right  affirmation, 
which  it  further  designates  as  a  form  of  Sruti,  or 
"revelation."2  This  last  is  declared  by  the  com- 
mentators to  mean  the  Vedas  ;  but  both  Kapila  and 
the  Karika  mention  it  last  in  order  of  importance. 
"  The  Sankhya,"  says  Roer,3  "  was  frequently  in  op- 
position to  the  doctrine  of  the  Vedas,  and  sometimes 
openly  declared  so.  Although  it  referred  to  them,  it 
did  so  only  when  they  accorded  with  its  own  doc- 
trines ;  and  it  rejected  their  authority  in  case  of  dis- 
crepancy." 

Kapila,  after  a  Hindu  way,  was  a  positivist.  He 
The  root  did  not  trouble  his  mind  with  seeking  a  first 
principle.  Cause  or  Source  of  all.  That  were  but 
"  regressus  in  infinitum."      He  did  not  demand  how 

carried  to  a  degree  of  refinement  never  equalled  elsewhere.  Yet  there  is  a  Spartan, 
or  rather  Stoic,  simplicity  about  the  plain  rude  \\a\s(toles),  where  hosts  of  pupils,  generation 
after  generation,  have  plied  these  mental  gymnastics  under  countless  masters  of  the  great 
systems  of  philosophy,  which  profoundly  impresses  the  European  philosopher.  Not  less 
striking  is  the  rule  of  these  dialectics  that  every  one  shall  present  the  view  of  his  opponent, 
and  exhaust  all  that  can  be  said  in  its  behalf,  before  refuting  it  and  maintaining  his  own. 
E.  B.  Cowell  in  Proceedings  0/ Bengal  Society,  June,  1S67. 

1  Sankhya  Karika,  II.  2  Karika,  V.  3  Introd.  to  Svetasvatara. 


SANKHYA.  381 

things  came  to  be  here,  but  what  they  are,  and  to 
what  end  they  are  here.  He  took  the  realities  he  felt 
and  saw,  referred  them  to  certain  root  principles  as 
primary  and  substantial,  and  made  these  his  starting- 
point  for  the  discriminations  which  should  teach  the 
truth  of  being.1  And  these  primary  substances  or 
"roots"2  he  found  to  be  two  in  number,  and  essentially 
distinct ;  the  one  representing  the  material  of  which 
the  complex  experience  of  actual  consciousness  is 
shaped ;  and  the  other,  its  constant  and  inviolable  be- 
holder, representing  the  ideal  essence  for  which  it  all 
exists,  and  by  virtue  of  whose  higher  presence  it  be- 
comes of  value.  This  latter  substance  he  did  not  very 
clearly  define,  except  by  contrast  with  the  other :  how 
was  it  possible  to  define  the  ineffable  freedom  and 
bliss  of  that  life  of  which  all  experience  but  serves 
to  teach  the  transcendence?  But  the  point  of  moment 
and  the  path  of  life  was  in  knowing  that  such  an  ideal 
personality  really  is  and  abides  ;  that  the  world  exists 
and  experience  is  developed,  for  its  sake  ;  and  that 
one  can  be  delivered  out  of  all  the  perturbations 
and  errors  and  blind  subserviences  which  he  finds 
in  his  experience,  into  its  pure  freedom,  light,  and 
peace. 

This,  as  I  understand  it,  is  the  substance  of  Kap- 
ila's  distinction  between  Prakriti,  or  "  nature,"  and 
Purusha,  or  "  soul."  It  was  at  once  speculative  and 
moral,  it  affirmed  that  each  individual's  action,  pas- 
sion, perception,  had  its  value  in  and  through  its  rela- 
tion to  an  ideal  personality  above  and  beyond  it,  for 
whose  purposes  it  was  working,  and  whose  purity  and 
freedom  were  constant  and  secure. 

It  has  been  usual  to  translate  Prakriti  by  the  terms 

1  Aphorisms  of  Kapila,  I.  68.  *  Ibid.,  I.  67. 


382  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

M  nature  "  and  "  matter."     But  it  certainly  does  not  sig- 
nify either  nature  or  matter,  in  the  senses  now 
eleven  given  by  us  to  those  terms.     Prakriti 1  means 
inPnikriti.    a    primarv    principle,    a    self-subsistent    orig- 
inal  essence;    and   in    this    sense   "  Mula   (the    root) 
Prakriti"  is  taken   by  Kapila  to  represent  the  sub- 
stratum of  all  experience,  except  Purusha,  or  Soul, 
which  is  the  other,  and  the  ideal,  root-principle  for 
which  it  exists.     Prakriti   "  is   not  crude,   visible,  or 
divisible  matter,"  but  that "  first  principle  which  was 
taught  in  Greece  also  by  Pythagoras,  Plato,  and  Aris- 
totle," and  which  in  fact  "  has  no  property  of  body."2 
It  is  all-pervading,  immutable,  one,  without  cause  or 
end.     It  enfolds  and  evolves2  senses,  without  being 
sense  as  distinct  from  spirit.     It  contains  and  evolves 
mind  also  ;  and  this  not  in  a  materialistic  sense,  as  a 
mere  outside  product  of  its  creative  power,  —  because 
the  great  positive  principle  of  Kapila  is  that,  as  there 
is  no  production  of  something  out  of  nothing,  the  effect 
already  pre-exists  in  the  cause,  and  like  comes  from 
like  only,  just  as  "  the   act  of  the   sculptor  can   only 
produce    the    manifestation    of   the    image    that  was 
already   [ideally]    in   the    stone."3      Mind,  therefore, 
pre-exists   in  the  essence   of  Prakriti,  which  conse- 
quently  cannot  be   mere   "  matter "    as    distinct    from 
mind.     But  Prakriti   evolves  both   senses   and   mind, 
only  through  the   presence   and   purpose   of  "  Soul" 
which  again  must  not  be  confounded  with  mind,  as 
thus  evolved  in  a  secondary,  instrumental,  and  sense- 
entangled  form. 


1  From  pra,  before,  and  kri,  to  make  (procreo),  indicating  pre-existent,   productive 
force. 

2  Wilson's  KarikA,  p.  82. 

3  Vijnana  Bikhshu's  commentary  on  the  Sankhya.     Aphorisms,  I.  7S,.i2o. 

t 


SANKHYA.  383 

Prakriti  is  also  the  equipoise,  or  essential  substratum, 
of  the  three  gunas  [or  qualities]  of  "  goodness,  The  three 
foulness  [or  rather,  appetence],  and  dark-  iualities- 
ness,"  —  elements  which  in  a  mixed,  consorted,  and 
confused  manner,  are,  as  bonds  (guna),  involved  in 
all  experience,  moral  and  intellectual;  but  which  must 
pass  away,  with  all  their  blind  gravitations,  in  the 
serene  light  and  liberty  of  "  Soul."  These  gunas  cer- 
tainly cannot  have  been  regarded  as  merely  physical, 
however  related  to  the  organs  of  sense,  and  the  bodily 
investment  of  mind.  They  correspond,  probably,  as 
nearly  as  we  can  express  them,  to  physical  and  moral 
temperaments.1  Thus  goodness  is  described  as  "  en- 
lightening," foulness  as  "  urgent,  or  passionate,"  and 
darkness  as  "heavy  and  enveloping."2  The  guna  of 
"goodness"  is,  it  would  seem,  a  temperamental,  un- 
discerning  instinct  for  what  is  right  and  good.  The 
guna  of  "  foulness "  (or  appetence)  is  that  perturba- 
tion of  the  passions,  that  blind  headiness  of  desire, 
that  vehement  grasp  and  cling  upon  things  as  if  they 
could  not  be  spared,  which  blurs  the  sight,  and  stains 
the  motive,  and  enslaves  the  will.  The  guna  of 
"  darkness  "  is  the  gloom  of  downward  gravitation  to  a 
sensual  and  brutish  state.  These  products  of  Prakriti 
are  said  to  consort  with  each  other,  as  resulting,  in 
different  degrees  and  different  aspects  and  directions, 
from  one  and  the  same  action.3  And  these  are  in 
equipoise  and  perpetual  possibility,  in  Prakriti,  as  the 
three  streams  are  united  in  the  Ganges.4 

From  this  first  principle  or  "  primary  root,"  this  un- 


1  The  Gnostics,  in  like  manner,  recognized  three  kinds  of  men,  the  pneumatical,  or 
spiritual ;  the  psychical,  attracted  both  to  sense  and  spirit;  and  the  hylical,  or  material. 

2  Karika,  XIII.  8  ibid.,  XII. 
4  Comment,  of  GaucLtpada  on  Karika,   XVI. 


384  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

changing  essence  of  all  things  "  mutable,  discrete,  mer- 
The seven  gent  in  their  causes  again,"1  come  what  Kap- 
principies.  j}a  caus  the  seven  "  produced  and  productive 
principles."  They  are  called  vikriti  (from  vi,  differ- 
ently, and  kri,  to  make),  indicating  that  they  are  not 
external  products  made  of  nothing,  but  modifications 
rather  of  the  root  itself. 

These  are  (1)  "Mahat,"  the  Great  one,  called  also 
buddhi,  or  understanding,  meaning  doubtless  Mind 
in  its  active  relations  and  consequent  limitations ; 
whence,  (2)  "Ahankara,"  self-consciousness,  or  ego- 
ism; whence,  (3)  five  "subtile  rudiments,"  which  are 
the  grounds  of  our  cognition  of  sound,  touch,  smell, 
form,  and  taste.  And  these  seven  powers  potentiate  for 
us  —  or,  as  Kapila  says,  "  produce  "  —  the  five  organs  of 
sensation,  the  five  organs  of  action,  and  the  five  gross 
elements,  or  lowest  form  of  matter,  to  which  is  added 
"  manas,"  or  mind  as  the  percipient  and  sensitive  ele- 
ment, that  refers  them  to  a  single  consciousness.2  These 
last  are  "products,  but  unproductive."  And  the  outward 
organs  of  sense  are  called  the  gates  or  doors,  while 
the  higher  internal  forces  that  make  these  their  means 
of  communication  —  namely,  understanding,  self-con- 
sciousness, and  sensibility  —  are  called  the  warders? 

"  He  who  knows  these  twenty -five  principles,"  says 
The  twenty-  Kapila,  "is  liberated,  whatever  order  of  [social] 
five-  life  he  may  have  entered."4 

Now,  of  the  seven  productive  principles  that  flow 
Further  from  Prakriti,  Mahat  is  further  defined  by  its 
definitions,   faculties  of  "  virtue,  knowledge,  and  power  :  " 

1  Aristotle  says  (Metaph-,  I.  3),  that  "  there  must  be  a  certain  permanent  Nature,  or 
primary  matter,  from  which  other  entities  are  produced,  and  which  remains  in  a  state  of 
conservation." 

2  Karika.     Also,  Aphorisms,  I.  61  ;  II.  17,  18.  3  Karika,  XXXV. 
4  Gaudapada  on  Kar.,  I. 


SANKHYA.  385 

virtue  (or  dharma)  being  the  fulfilment  of  the  duties 
of  humanity,  and  power  being  the  "  subjugation  of 
nature."1  Ahankara  is  egoism,  or  consciousness, 
considered  as  involving  the  pride  (abhimana)  that, 
for  Hindu  conscience,  always  vitiates  the  feeling  of 
individuality  ;  and  the  "  self-sufficiency  that  says  there 
is  no  other  supreme  but  me."2  Both  "understanding" 
and  "  egoism "  are  of  course  imperfect :  the  one  as 
affected  by  mental  incompetency,  error,  and  manifold 
circumstance ;  the  other  as  the  illusion  of  self-com- 
placency. And  their  use  is  in  subserving  the  spiritual 
ideal,  by  pointing  to  somewhat  beyond,  and  in  con- 
trast with  themselves.  What  Kapila  meant  by  the 
"  subtile  rudiments"  is  not  so  easy  to  determine,  —  per- 
haps some  finer  elementary  substance,  from  which  the 
grosser  organs  were  supposed  to  emanate ;  but,  more 
probably,  the  subjective,  intelligent  ground  involved 
in  sensation  ;  the  perceptivity  required  for  the  act  of 
receiving  outward  impressions ;  and  this  taken  as 
generator  of  the  special  senses  themselves, — one  sub- 
tile form  for  each  sense. 

Concerning  all  this,  we  must  observe  that,  as  is 
usual  with  Hindu  thinking,  so  here,  intelli-  Precedence 
gence  generates  gross  matter,  not  the  reverse;  of,ntelh- 

000  >    gence  to 

and  if  Prakriti,  the  root  of  these  seven  intelli-  matter. 
gent  principles,  is  called  "unconscious,"  this  is  meant 
in  no  absolute  sense,  and  in  none  that  invalidates  the 
precedence  of  intelligence ;  since,  however  uncon- 
scious, it  is  still  active ;  and  active,  moreover,  in  serv- 
ing a  higher  intelligence  still ;  "  fulfilling  the  purposes 
of  soul,  spontaneously  and  by  an  innate  property ;  its 
instruments  performing  their  functions  by  mutual  in- 

1  Gaudapada  on  Kar.,  XXIII. 

2  Vachespati's  Comment,  on  Kar.,  XXIV.;  Aph.,  II.  16. 

25 


386  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

vitation,  the  soul's  purpose  being  the  motive."1  f*  For 
this  alone  does  Prakriti  act,  to  fulfil  the  soul's  desire."2 

Amoncr  the  errors  about  the  nature  of  soul  which 
constitute  bondage,  that  of  confounding  it  with  matter,3 
or  any  of  the  products  of  Prakriti,  is  pronounced 
by  all  Sankhyan  authorities  to  be  the  most  radical. 
"Soul,"  says  Kapila,  "is  something  other  than  body; 
since  what  is  combined,  and  so  discerptible,  is  for  the 
sake  of  some  other  that  is  indiscerptible."  "  Soul  is 
not  material,  because  it  is  the  experiencer  ;  and  because 
of  its  superintendence  over  nature."4 

Further :    the    principle    of   intelligent    perceptive 

power   (mahat)    is  capable   of  discriminating 
Soul  distinct  f  v  '  \  .     .  .  .        ° 

andsover-    between   Purusha    and    Prakriti;5    and  in  so 

eign-  doing    recognizes    soul    as    superior   to    both 

"  nature  "  and  itself,  in  consequence  of  its  being  intel- 
ligence in  a  higher  sense  than  itself.  For  soul, 
according  to  Kapila,  must  not  be  confounded  with 
mind  as  such  ; 6  having  a  higher  form  of  knowledge  ; 
pure,  independent,  undisturbed  vision.  "  Soul  is  the 
seer,  the  spectator,  bystander."7  Have  we  not  here  a 
hint  of  intuition,  in  its  distinction  from  opinion;  of 
the  higher  reason  in  contrast  with  the  limits  of  the 
understanding  ? 

I  have  said  that  Kapila,  after  a  Hindu  way,  was  a 
positivist.     But  he  certainly  was  not  a  mate- 

Positivism      l  .     .     ,         . 

in  the  sank- riahst.  The  Sankhya  has  plainly  m  many 
hya'  respects  a  transcendental  method  and  faith. 

But  what  is  the  meaning  of  that  "  spontaneity  and 
innate  property"  of  unconscious  Prakriti,  that  inde- 
pendent force  by  which  it  acts,  even  in  "  service  of 

»  Karika:,  XXXI.  2  Ibid.,  XLII. ;  Afik.,  II.  36,  37- 

*  Wilson's  Comtnetti.  on  Kdr-,  XLV.  l  Aphorisms,  I.  139,  142,  143. 

«  Karika,  XXXVII.  8  Ajk.,  I.  129,  130. 
»  A  ph.,  II.  29  ;  Karika,  XIX. 


SANKHYA.  387 

soul  "  ?  Have  we  not  here  a  germ  of  positive  science  ? 
Is  it  any  thing  else  than  an  instinctive  presentiment  of 
natural  law,  and  of  the  development  of  the  world  there- 
by ?  And  is  not  the  remanding  of  soul  to  the  position  of 
a  "  witness  and  seer,"  not  interfering  with  those  innate 
properties  of  spontaneous  development,  an  imperfect 
recognition  of  the  invariability  of  natural  law,  and  its 
independence  of  all  external  volition  or  arbitrary  in- 
tervention ?  I  cannot  find  a  better  explanation  than 
this  of  his  meaning,  when,  as  if  fascinated  by  the 
self-adequacy  of  nature,  he  refers  the  orderly  processes 
of  experience  to  modifications  of  an  active  but  uncon- 
scious principle.  Yet  the  unconsciousness  of  Prakriti 
is,  as  we  have  just  seen,  only  relative  to  itself  as  pro- 
cess, as  mode,  or  as  law.  It  stands  in  the  closest  rela- 
tion to  conscious  intelligence ,  or  soul,  which,  if  not  its 
cause,  is  allowed  to  be  the  motive  from  which  it  acts 
and  the  force  which  "  superintends  "  it.1  These  are 
hints  that  soul,  in  the  Sankhya,  really  means  spirit 
guiding  the  course  of  nature,  though  Kapila  does  not 
seem  to  have  followed  them  out.  So  the  strictest 
modern  positivist  must  recognize  in  natural  law  that 
unity,  beauty,  order,  mystery,  which  are  in  fact  repre- 
sentative of  whatever  intelligence  holds  most  worthy 
of  itself. 

What  does  Kapila  mean  here  by  "soul"  and  its 
"desire"?  How  does  Prakriti  point  to  that  for  whose 
service  it  exists  ?  In  other  words,  how  does  the  actual 
enforce  faith  in  the  ideal  ?  Here  is  the  compact 
answer  to  the  last  questions :  — 

"  Since  sensible  objects  are  for  use  of  another  [than  them- 
selves] ;  since  the  opposite  of  that  which  has  the  three  qualities 
must  exist ;  since  there  must  be  superintendence  ;  since  there  must 

1  Karika,  XVII. ;  Aphorisms,  I.  142. 


388  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

be  one  to  enjoy ;  and  since  there  is  a  drawing  to  abstraction  —  that 
is,  since  every  one  desires  release,  —  therefore  [know  we  that] 
Soul  h." ' 

What  then  is  Soul?  It  is  affirmed  to  be  free  from  all 
what  is  qualities  which  produce  the  imperfections  of 
soul?  experience,  —  free,  therefore,  from  their  activ- 

ity or  pursuit  of  special  objects,  which  in  experience 
produces  dependence,  bondage,  loss,  and  grief.  As 
steadfast,  imperturbable,  perfectly  self-subsistent,  it 
must  be  related  to  the  world  of  imperfect  conditions 
as  a  witness  and  a  bystander  only,  not  a  participant 
in  these  defects. 

In  other  words,  —  as  we  should  say,  and  as  the 
Hindu,  in  his  fashion,  says  here,  I  think,  quite  clearly, 
—  an  ideal  capability  stands  fast  in  us,  as  the  real  sub- 
stance of  ourselves,  untouched  by  the  errors  and  stains 
of  life,  unabated  by  its  discouragements,  with  serenity 
beholding  them,  as  it  were,  in  their  real  outwardness 
to  its  own  essence. 

Yet  this  ideal  essence,  like  the  Hellenic-Hebrew 
Soul  not  "Wisdom,"  though  "  remaining  in  itself,  makes 
really  bound.  a\\  things  new."  It  is  constantly  united  with 
Prakriti  in  the  individual  consciousness,  and  so  ap- 
pears to  share  in  its  infirmities,  to  be  bound  in 
all  the  fetters  of  experience.  But  the  appearance 
is  illusory.  The  soul  is  not  really  bound.  In  all 
this  confused  activity,  this  unsatisfactory  doing,  it  is 
"  the  qualities  "  that  are  active,  while  the  "  stranger  " 
[soul]  but  appears  the  agent.2  It  is  like  our  con- 
founding fire  and  iron  in  a  heated  bar,  or  sun  and 
water  in  reflections  from  a  stream  ;  like  the  color  of 
glass  when  a  rose  is  near  it.  It  is  illusion  :  "  verbal ; 
resides  in  the  mind,  not  in  the  soul  itself."  3     The  soul 

*  K&rik&,  XVII.  *  Ibid.,  XX.  3  Aph.,  I.  S8. 


SANKHYA. 


589 


cannot  be  bound.  "  VTerily  not  any  soul  is  bound, 
or  released,  or  transmigrates ;  but  nature  (Prakriti) 
alone  is  so,  in  relation  to  the  variety  of  beings." 1 
In  other  words,  the  bondage  men  feel  is  not  essential 
bondage ;  2  and  thoroughly  to  know  this  by  faith  in 
the  soul  as  absolute,  imperishable,  and  free,3  is  libera- 
tion. Plotinus,  also,  asserts  the  soul  to  be  an  essence 
which  miseries  and  changes  cannot  touch ;  that  these 
reach  only  to  the  shadow  of  it,  not  the  substance ;  that 
its  bliss  is  in  pure  seeing,  free  of  the  blindness  of  ma- 
terial desires  and  pursuits.  How  the  soul  comes  to  be 
united  with  "  nature,"  or  the  defects  of  experience, 
Kapila  does  not  ask.  He  accepts  the  fact.  Whence 
comes  our  ideal  vision,  is  not  the  first,  nor  the  main 
question,  nor  soluble  for  the  scientific  understanding  at 
any  time.  For  what  end  it  is  always  with  us,  is  the 
point  of  moment.  And  Kapila's  answer  is  that,  prac- 
tically, "  union  is  for  the  sake  of  liberation."  Till 
true  discrimination  is  attained,  till  the  validity  and 
independence  of  this  higher  personality  is  appreciated, 
there  remains  the  illusion  which  is  bondage  and  pain. 
The  lame  and  the  blind  are  journeying,  and  agree  to 
help  each  other :  the  blind  carries  the  lame  on  his 
shoulders,  and  the  journey  is  accomplished,  since  the 
one  can  walk  and  the  other  show  the  way.  So  "  soul  " 
conjoined  with  M  nature,"  if  it  cannot  move,  can  see  ; 
and  "  nature,"  if  it  cannot  see,  can  advance  under 
guidance.  Thus  liberation  is  effected,  and  the  jour- 
ney ends.4  The  Sankhya  loves  to  describe  the  essen- 
tial good-will  that  resides  in  the  process,  arduous  as  it 
is ;  the  real  harmony  of  ideal  and  actual,  the  friend- 
ly purpose  that  animates  this  necessary  illusion  and 

1  Karika,  LXII. ;  Aph.,  I.  160,  162.  *  Aph.,  I.  7. 

3  Aph.,  I.  12,  15,  19.  4  Karika,  XXI. 


35>0  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

defect;  the  effort,  as  it  were,  of  Prakriti  herself  to 
deliver  man  from  his  pain.  That  man  shall  know 
and  discern  her  truth,  —  not  that  she  hold  him 
bound  in  ignorance,  —  is  her  purport.  Unconscious 
nature  lives  and  loves,  in  his  desire.  "  As  people 
engage  in  acts  to  relieve  desires,  so  nature  to  liberate 
soul ;  generous,  seeking  no  benefit,  nature  accom- 
plishes the  wish  of  ungrateful  Soul."  1  Her  evolution 
goes  on  "  for  deliverance  of  each  soul : "  it  is  "  done 
for  another's  sake  as  for  self." a  Here  is  unity  of 
spirit  plucked  even  from  the  abysses  of  speculative 
analysis,  of  essential  distinction !  "  Nothing,"  says 
Gaudapada,  "  is,  in  my  opinion,  more  gentle  than 
Prakriti :  once  aware  of  having  been  seen,  she  does 
not  expose  herself  again  to  the  gaze  of  soul."  3  How 
delicate  and  genial  is  this  sense  of  illusion,  which 
makes  error  vanish  from  the  eyes  of  truth,  as  one 
who  knows  she  should  not  be  seen  ! 

Similar  ideas  are  found  in  the  Gnostic  systems. 
And  the  fundamental  principle  of  both  philosophies 
is  the  same.  "Bondage  is  from  misconception."4 
It  consists  in  errors  about  the  nature  of  soul.  If  this 
seems  to  ignore  the  moral  element,  we  have  seen  that 
the  intellectual  and  the  moral  are  closely  associated  in 
the  old  philosophies  of  the  Aryan  race :  that  "  knowl- 
edge "  involves  entering  into  the  nature  of  what  is 
known,  becoming  one  with  the  ideal,  through  aban- 
donment of  all  selfish  and  sensual  interests. 

All  Oriental  wisdom  assumes  to  a  greater  or  less 
,     degree  the  truth  of  the  Platonic  maxim,  that  to 

Moral  rela-  ° 

dons  of  this  know  virtue  is  to  love  it,  and  that  whoso  7'cally 
sees  vices  must  shun  them.     That  moral  evil 

»  Karik&,  LVIII.  LX.  2  Ibid.,  LVI. 

8  Ibid.,  LXI.  *  Aph.,  III.  24. 


SANKHYA.  391 

is  from  misconception,  and  is  to  be  cured  by  the  pure 
vision  of  truth,  is  at  least  a  principle  tending  to 
purify  the  conscience,  and  urge  it  to  the  pursuit  of 
the  real,  to  surrender  of  the  shadow  and  the  surface 
to  win  the  substance  of  virtue.  In  the  absence  of 
that  light  which  science  lends  to  the  conscience,  the 
moral  effect  of  this  absolute  faith  in  right  knowing  must 
have  been  relatively  greater  than  that  of  distinctively 
intellectual  motives  at  the  present  day. 

The  Sankhya  is  philosophy  rather  than  ethics ;  and 
its  aphorisms  do  not  enter  definitely  into  the  „ , .  , 

r  J  Ethical 

special  disciplines  by  which  pure  "  soul  "  was  value  of  the 
to  be  reached.  Yet  the  very  substance  of  its  an  ya" 
"discrimination"  is  the  preference  of  higher  to  lower 
principles  ;  of  the  eternal  to  the  transient ;  of  ideal 
personality  to  self-centred  individuality ;  of  spirit  to 
sense ;  of  duty  to  desire.  And  the  sum  of  those 
"defects  of  the  understanding"  which  cause  "delay  of 
liberation  "  is  distinctly  defined  to  be  "  acquiescence  ;"! 
the  self-complacency  that  causes  it  to  stop  short  of  that 
perfect  sacrifice  by  which  truth  is  fully  known. 

Of  the  forms  of  such  "acquiescence,"  four  are  in- 
ternal. The  first  relates  to  nature,  and  consists  in 
merely  recognizing  principles  as  of  nature,  without 
going  further;  the  second,  to  means,  a  mere  depend- 
ance  on  observance ;  the  third,  to  time,  a  mere  wait- 
ing, as  if  liberation  would  come  in  good  season  ;  the 
fourth,  to  luck,  expecting  it  to  turn  up  by  chance. 
The  other,  or  external,  kinds  of  acquiescence,  are 
forms  of  abstinence  from  objects,  merely  because  of 
the  trouble  and  anxiety  they  bring.2 

The  practical  philosophy  of  the  Sankhya,  as  far  as 

1  Karika,  I  2  Gaudapada  on  Kar-,  L. 


392  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

it  can  be  seen  in  the  Aphorisms,  in  fact,  reminds  us  of 
the  manly  precepts  of  the  later  Stoic  and  the  breadth 
of  the  Eclectic  schools. 

"  Not  in  a  perturbed  mind  does  wisdom  spring." 

"  The  lotus  is  according  to  the  soil  it  grows  in." 

"  Success  is  slow  ;  and  not  even,  though  instruction  be  heard,  is 
the  end  gained  without  reflection." 

"  Not  by  enjoyment  is  desire  appeased." 

"  Go  not,  of  thine  own  will,  near  to  one  driven  by  strong  desire." 

"  He  who  is  without  hopes  is  happy." 

"  Though  one  devote  himself  to  many  teachers,  he  must  take  the 
essence,  as  the  bee  from  flowers."1 

How  far  the  sacrifice  must  be  carried  may  be  learned 
Limits  of     from  the  following  decisive  aphorism   of  the 

sdf-abnega-    KaHka  I  — 
tion. 

"  Liberation  obtained  through  knowledge  of  the  twenty-five  princi- 
ples teaches  the  one  only  knowledge,  —  that  neither  I  am,  nor  is 
aught  mine,  nor  do  I  exist."  2 

Such  is  Wilson's  translation,  which  doubtless  a  little 
periphrasis  would  make  more  intelligible  to  the  Teu- 
tonic mind. 

How  are  we  to  understand  such  a  statement  as  this? 
If  it  were  the  language  of  sentiment,  instead  of  being, 
as  it  is,  a  positive  aphorism  of  philosophy,  it  might 
find  its  equivalents  in  the  mystical  piety  of  every  age. 
That  it  should  here  mean  either  nihilism,  or  the  "  desire 
of  annihilation,"  is  plainly  impossible.  We  have  seen 
that  even  the  Vedanta,  in  resolving  all  existence  into 
illusion,  except  the  life  of  the  soul  in  the  absolute  and 
eternal,  taught  no  such  purpose  of  self-destruction. 
Can  we  then  imagine  this  to  be,  in  any  sense,  compati- 
ble with  the  intense  realism  of  Kapila,  who  firmly 
insists  not  only  that  nature  is  a  positive  principle  and 

1  Aph.,  IV.  2  K&rik&,  LXIV. 


SANKHYA.  393 

entity,1  but  that  soul  is  not  one,  but  many ;  and  that 
each  of  these  souls  is  a  unit,  or  monad,  real  and 
imperishable?2  The  whole  aim  of  the  Sankhya  is 
liberation  "for  the  sake  of  this"  which  is  the  proper 
■personality ',  and  nowise  to  be  lost,  nor  merged,  nor 
marred.  Kapila  indeed  takes  special  pains  to  declare 
that  "the  soul's  aim  is  not  annihilation."3  And  the 
commentators  on  the  verse  above  quoted  explain  it  to 
mean  that  the  one  true  wisdom  is  "  difference  from 
egotism,"  and  "exemption  from  being  the  seat  of 
pain;"  i.e.,  from  the  errors  and  bonds  of  the  under- 
standing in  its  consciousness  of  agency.4  "  By  these 
expressions, — 'neither  I  am,  nor  is  aught  mine,  nor 
do  I  exist,'  —  we  are  not  to  understand  negation 
of  soul.  This  would  be  direct  contradiction  to  the 
Sankhya  categories.  It  is  intended  merely  as  nega- 
tion of  the  soul's  having  any  active  participation,  in- 
dividual interest,  or  property,  in  human  pains  and 
human  feelings.  The  verse  does  not  amount,  there- 
fore, as  Cousin  has  supposed,  to  "le  nihilisme  absolu, 
dernier  fruit  du  skepticisme."5 

It  should  seem  that  the  term  "human"  in  Wilson's 
explanation,  as  indicating  what  is  to  be  dismissed  from 
the  life  in  liberation,  covers  too  large  a  ground ;  since 
the  soul,  as  Kapila  conceives  it,  is  properly  the  very 
essence  of  our  humanity,  and  all  human  experience  is 
for  its  sake.6 

Yet,  inasmuch  as  in  Hindu  thought  knowledge  of 
soul  can  be  attained  only  by  becoming  soul,  it  Disparage- 
would  follow  that  the  interests  of  the  body,  ^ard. 

i  Aph.,  I.79;  VI.  53. 

2  Aph.,  I.  144,  149-151.  "As  the  elements  are  real,  so  is  the  soul  real."  Yajxav., 
III.  149. 

3  Aph.,  I.  47.  *  Chandrika,  quoted  by  Wilson,  p.  1S0. 
<s  Wilson,  p.  i8z.                            6  Aph.,  II.  46. 


394  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

and  properly  the  body  itself,  must  pass  away  before 
liberation,  in  the  pure  and  perfect  sense,  can  be 
achieved.  Disparagement  of  man's  physical  and 
practical  relations  is  of  course  the  weak  point  in  this 
as  in  all  Oriental  philosophy.  Kapila's  insistence 
on  the  "isolation"  of  soul,  and  its  distinction  from 
"  nature,"  involves  a  constant  endeavor  to  separate  the 
two  in  the  interest  of  the  former,  which  even  his 
realistic  view  of  "nature,"  and  his  perception  of  her 
essential  sympathy  with  the  "  aim  of  soul,"  cannot 
counteract.  Thus  while  he  affirms  that  liberation  is 
possible  in  this  life,  and  without  the  dissolution  of 
the  body,  he  is  careful  to  explain  that,  when  this  is 
attained,  soul  remains  invested  with  body  only  as  the 
potter's  wheel  continues  to  whirl,  after  the  potter  has 
left  it,  by  the  impetus  previously  given.1  The  aspira- 
tion after  purely  spiritual  existence  in  the  present  life 
has  produced  similar  disparagement  of  outward  rela- 
tions in  Christianity  also,  from  the  New  Testament 
down  to  the  renaissance-epoch  in  modern  Europe,  and 
even  till  the  recent  growth  of  physical  science.  Its 
asceticism  could  only  be  counterbalanced  by  social 
interests  and  practical  aims ;  and  these  have  but  fol- 
lowed up  the  "necessary  discriminations"  insisted 
on  by  the  Kapilas  and  other  rationalists  of  old,  with  a 
higher  synthesis  of  soul  and  sense. 

But,  liberation  not  being  accomplished  in  this  life, 

body  was,  according  to  the  Sankhya,  not 
spiritual      escaped  at  death.      It  accompanied  the  soul 

still,  in  its  subtile  form,  the  linga  Sarira? 
or  "  spiritual  body,"  which  consisted  of  all  those  prin- 
ciples and  rudimental  elements  which  flow  from  Prak- 

'  Karika,  LXVII. 

2  Linga  signifies  a  cJiaracteristic,  or  mark.     Sarira  is  the  body. 


SANKHYA.  395 

riti,  with  the  exception  of  the  enveloping  gross  organs 
and  bodily  frame  ;  these,  and  only  these,  perishing  at 
death.  The  linga,  with  all  its  component  parts,  —  un- 
derstanding, egoism,  and  the  subtile  organs  that  serve 
them,  —  is  subject  to  transmigration,  requires  the  sup- 
port of  a  special  vehicle  or  body,  and  ceases  only  with 
the  process  of  liberation,  and  the  full  realization  of 
soul.1 

Here  Kapila  stops.  He  does  not  tell  us  what  he 
holds  this  life  of  realized  soul  to  be,  save  in  its  KaPiia'5 
difference  from  all  present  experiences  through  lumt- 
the  understanding,  from  all  our  self-conscious  feeling 
and  action.  Not  his  to  describe  the  end,  but  to  state 
the  distinctions  that  condition  it,  and  to  hint  the  way 
to  it.  But  the  implication  seems  to  be,  that  with  the 
fulfilment  of  man's  highest  ideal  comes  the  ineffable 
reality,  which  we  can  neither  understand  nor  con- 
ceive ;  but  to  which  all  that  we  see,  and  know,  and 
feel,  and  dream  ourselves  the  doers  and  possessors  of, 
is  but  the  imperfect  and  transient  means ;  the  deaf, 
dumb,  and  blind  servant  of  a  secret  which  its  finiteness 
helps,  by  very  contrast,  to  reveal. 

The  substance  is  this.  There  is  a  reality,  abid- 
ing eternally,  to  know  which  is  life,  and  be-  His  affirma. 
fore  which  all  other  intelligence,  as  Paul  says tlon- 
of  "  tongues  and  prophecies  and  knowledge,"  shall 
"  vanish  away."  And  as  the  apostle's  reason  for  the 
evanescence  of  these  is  that  "  we  know  in  part,  and 
prophesy  in  part,  and  when  that  which  is  perfect  is 
come  that  which  is  in  part  must  be  done  away,"  Kap- 
ila would  probably  ask  why  the  specially  Christian 
faiths  hofie,  and  love,   which  Paul  thought  sure  to 

1  The  Bhagav.  Gita  says  that,  "  when  spirit  abandons  a  body,  it  migrates,  taking  with  it 
its  senses,  as  the  wind  wafts  along  with  itself  the  perfume  of  the  flowers." 


396  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

abide  when  knowledge  shall  have  been  proved  a  vain 
thing,  must  not  also,  as  being  in  like  wise  imperfect 
and  partial,  pass  away  when  that  which  is  perfect  is 
come.  And  shall  we  not  hear  Kapila  and  Socrates  as 
well  as  Jesus  and  Paul?  Are  ideals  of  pure  knowledge 
essentially  less  adequate  than  ideals  of  faith  and  love, 
if  these  disparage  knowledge?  Will  not  the  future 
insist  on  the  necessity  of  independent  seeing,  in  order 
to  right  believing  and  true  helping,  —  on  the  unity 
of  science  and  love? 

For  fuller  understanding  of  this  interesting  system, 
TheAphor.let  us  review  its  leading  characteristics,  with 
isms.  special  illustration  from  the  aphorisms  ascribed 

to  Kapila  himself. 

The  Sankhya  proves  the  capacity  of  Hindu  genius 
Differences  for  a  very  different  form  of  thought  from  that 
of  vedanta  which  we  have  been  tracing  through  the  mys- 

3.11  Q  o3.UK- 

hya.  tical  unities  of  the  Vedanta.     There  is  no  pas- 

sive receptivity  of  mind,  no  dissolving  of  distinctions 
in  the  infinite  as  the  only  real.  Precisely  the  opposite. 
The  word  Sankhya  refers  us  to  numbers  as  definite 
entities:  it  means  to  distinguish,  to  weigh,  to  judge. 
"Learn  to  discriminate,  and  be  free,"  was  the  precept 
of  this  philosophy ;  and  that  it  was  needed  in  Indian 
thought  has  already  become  sufficiently  plain. 

Both  Vedanta  and  Sankhya  aim  at  spiritual  emanci- 
pation. But  the  one  assumes  absolute  unity,  and 
seeks  freedom  by  solving  all  distinctions  therein ;  the 
other  assumes  essential  distinction,  as  between  "  soul " 
and  blind  "  natural "  forces,  and  seeks  freedom  by  dis- 
solving the  bondage  which  consists  in  confounding 
them. 

The  Vedanta  affirms  all  spirit  to  be  absolutely  one : 


SANKHYA.  397 

the  Sankhya  recognizes  the  diversity  of  persons  as 
real.  So  that  while  the  Vedantist  escapes  bondage 
when  he  sees  himself  to  be  one  with  Brahma,  the 
Sankhyan  is  free  when  he  knows  himself  as  really 
separate  from  all  blind  and  confused  conceptions,  all 
crude,  intractable  material  in  the  natural  order  of  ex- 
perience. "To  know  that  one  was  not  bound  when 
one  seemed  to  be  so,  —  this,"  says  Kapila,  "  is  libera- 
tion." So  the  Vedantist  could  say,  but  hardly  in  the 
interest  of  individual  being.  For  him  the  real  soul 
was  free,  in  that  its  substance  was  not  in  the  indi- 
vidual self,  but  in  God.  For  the  other  it  was  free,  in 
that  it  was  itself  substance,  as  individual,  which  bon- 
dage could  not  really  touch.  The  Nyaya,  also, 
affirms  individual  souls  to  be  real,  eternal,  and  even 
infinite.1 

For  the  Vedantist,  bondage  was  unreal,  because  the 
ego  that  was  bound  and  the  phenomenal  world  which 
bound  it  were  alike  void  of  essential  life. 

For  the  Sankhyan,  bondage  was  unreal,  because 
while  the  world  that  seemed  to  bind  it  was  granted 
real,  the  true  ego,  also  real,  for  ever  stood  beyond  its 
power.  Definite  forms  of  existence  were  maya  (illu- 
sion) for  the  one  :  bondage  itself,  bondage  alone,  was 
maya  for  the  other. 

The  Sankhya  is  analytic,  as  the  Vedanta  is  synthe- 
tic. It  reacts  against  the  very  idea  of  unity ;  and,  so 
far  as  is  possible,  avoids  it;  being,  in  fact,  not  a  sys- 
tem of  theology  at  all,  but  a  system  of  analytic  phi- 
losophy in  the  interest  of  individual  (speculative  and 
moral)  freedom.  Without  denying  an  ulterior  synthe- 
sis, it  affirms  its  two  primary  principles,  Purusha  (the 
soul)  and  Prakriti  ("nature"),  which  again  are  divis- 

1  Colebrooke's  Analysis,  Essays,  I.  268. 


398  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

ible ;  since  of  souls  there  is  multiplicity,  and  of  Prak- 
riti  there  is  a  primal  and  also  a  developed,  "  phe- 
nomenal," form. 

Prakriti,  "rootless  (or  primary)  root,"  is  not,  let  us 
Meaning  of  once  more  note,  material  nature  in  any  abso- 
Prakriti.  \u^e  sense  ;  since,  as  developed  through  contact 
with  "  soul,"  it  appears  in  a  series  of  evolutions,  of 
which  the  first  member  is  apprehension,  and  the  sec- 
ond self-consciousness,  or  self-will,  the  egoistic  ele- 
ment ;  out  of  which,  as  Hindu  thought  is  wont  to  make 
mind  precedent  and  body  derivative,  are  generated  the 
subtile  organs  and  gross  body  of  sensation  and  action.1 
To  explain  the  real  meaning  of  the  conception,  we 
have  the  further  fact  that  Prakriti  is  also  the  original 
equipoise  or  latent  potentiality  of  three  psychological 
qualities,  evolved  in  man  through  its  union  with  mind,2 
—  the  ascending  quality  (sattva,  or  goodness),  allied 
to  essence  and  light;  the  impulsive,  ungoverned  ro- 
tating quality  (rajas,  or  passion)  ;  and  last,  the  down- 
ward-tending quality  of  weight  and  darkness  (tamas, 
or  irrationality).  Of  this  triplicity  of  qualities,  which 
runs  through  the  whole  of  Hindu  thought,  and  which 
has  formed  substantially  the  basis  of  psychological 
conceptions  in  other  races  also,  Prakriti  was  the  mere 
potential  ground,  or  indifference,  generating  them  in 
definite  forms,  only  through  union  with  soul,  itself 
unconscious;  "energizing  spontaneously,  not  by 
thought,"  yet  really  existing  as  Prakriti,  in  these 
qualities,  the  phenomena  of  mind. 

From  all  which,  we  can  perhaps  divine  the  meaning 
of  the  word  in  this  subtle  system  of  analytics.  Prak- 
riti cannot  be  dead  matter ;  nor  is  it  independent  mind. 
It  indicates  simply,  in  my  judgment,  an  effort  to  ex- 

»  Aph.,  I.  71,  73;  II.  16,  18.  8  Aph.,  III.  4S-50. 


SANKHYA.  399 

press  that  mysterious  interweaving  of  unconscious  and 
active  powers,  which  obscures  the  relation  of  mind 
with  body,  not  to  Hindu  vision  only,  but  to  all  human 
insight  hitherto  attained. 

Over  against  this,  Kapila  posits  essential  man , 
seeking  to  lift  the  conception  as  far  as  possible  Meaning  of 
above  these  sources  of  error,  confusion,  and  Purusha- 
consequent  bondage,  with  which  man  is  phenomenally 
connected,  and  to  affirm  his  inalienable  ideal  sover- 
eignty. "Soul  (purusha)  is;"1  and  it  is  substantial 
and  valid  in  every  individual  soul ;  not  competent 
merely  to  liberate  itself  from  this  blind  Prakriti  and 
its  bondage  of  illusions,  but  in  and  of  itself  vitally 
and  for  ever  free,  the  ultimate  force  "  for  whose  service 
this  exists  and  energizes."  Hence  it  is  seen  only 
when  felt  as  throned  serene  behind  the  warfare  of  life, 
inviolate ;  a  witness  and  seer  in  itself,  "  neither  agent 
nor  patient,"  though  taking  the  tinge  of  qualities  by 
reflection  merely,  so  as  to  appear  both  the  one  and 
the  other,  just  as  glass  reflects  the  color  of  the  object 
near  it ;  and  moving  the  organs  "  by  proximity  only," 
through  some  subtle  authority  lying  behind  contact, 
and  of  a  higher  quality  than  that ;  as  -the  loadstone 
moves  the  iron,  or  a  king  his  army  through  orders 
and  not  by  engaging  in  the  fight.2  A  grand  concep- 
tion, or  divination  by  pure  intellect,  of  the  authority 
of  mind  over  circumstance,  and  of  the  impossibility 
of  final  moral  and  spiritual  failure.  This  is  to  lay 
a  noble  basis  for  psychology  and  theology  in  the 
dignities  of  personal  being ;  and  for  that  inward  union 
with  imperishable  principles  which  lifts  it  above 
transiency  and  loss.  It  is  the  affirmation  of  ideal 
-personality,  in  a  very  high  form. 

1  Aph  ,  VI.  i.  2  A/A.,  I.  106;  II.  29;   I.  96. 


4-00  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Here  then  the  two  principles ;  not  absolute  duality, 
Not  pure  since  Prakriti  is  said  to  generate  for  the  sake 
dualism.  0y  ijie  soul,  and  thus  soul  alone  is  declared 
really  and  absolutely  to  be.  Yet  the  Sankhya  makes 
no  systematic  effort  to  reduce  the  two  to  one,  nor  even 
to  urge  the  unity  of  either  with  itself.  It  is  too  much 
absorbed  in  the  endeavor  to  distinguish  the  proper 
personality  from  temporary  illusions,  overmastering 
passions,  and  special  solicitudes,  and  too  thoroughly 
possessed  by  its  glad  vision  of  the  soul  as  divine 
repose,  as  free  beholding,  as  pure  transcendence.  So 
the  substance  of  its  insight  is  freedom ;  its  watch- 
word, "the  separateness  (or  detachment)  of  soul."1 

So  profoundly  was  the  Hindu  mind  prepossessed 
by  the   synthetic  tendency,   that   an   analytic 

Rationalism      J  .  1 

of  the  sank- process  was  but  natural  reaction,  sundering 
hya"  the  elements,  and  drawing  forth  their  respec- 

tive validities.  Thus  the  Sankhya  takes  special  pains 
to  prove,  against  Vedantic  absorption  of  the  many  in- 
to the  One,  that  there  is  a  real  mult  i -pi i city  of  souls? 
And  it  explains  the  Vedic  texts  which  affirm  the  one- 
ness of  soul,  as  referring  simply  to  the  comprehen- 
siveness of  "  genus."  3 

The  Sankhya  is  rationalistic,  as  the  Vedanta  is 
pietistic.  It  is  sceptical,  as  the  other  is  believing. 
It  is  active  criticism,  as  the  other  is  unquestioning 
faith.  It  appeals  to  common  sense  and  realistic  per- 
ception against  the  unbalanced  mysticism  that  merely 
absorbed  all  things  into  one.  It  is  an  effort  to  escape 
from  this  into  the  true  sense  of  spiritual  being,  by 
concentration  on  perception,  inference,  testimony,  and 
the  exclusion  of  all  causes  of  false  notions.4 

i  Aph.,  V.  65 ;  VI.  1,  70.  2  Ibid.,  I.  149-151- 

8  Ibid.,  I.  isv.  *  Ibid.,  I.  87,  89   100. 


SANKHYA. 


401 


The  Vedanta  in  its  best  form   recognizes  that  the 
highest  truth  cannot  be  reached  by  the  study 

"        Liberties. 

of  the  Vedas,  and  that  the  wise  may  "  throw 
them   by,   as   one  who   seeks  grains  the   chaff."     Its 
piety  left  paths  open  out  of  the  bibliolatry  that  beset 
its  schools. 

But  the  Sankhya  made  a  more  radical  protest ; 
for  it  starts  from  postulates  of  reason,  not  of  Treatment 
faith.  The  worship  of  the  letter,  the  author- oftheVeda- 
ity  of  a  book,  must  cease.  Kapila  declares  plainly, 
The  Veda  is  not  eternal :  it  is  not  supernatural  nor 
superhuman  ;  its  meaning  does  not  transcend  the  com- 
mon intuition.  He  who  understands  the  secular  mean- 
ings of  words  can  understand  their  sense  in  the  Veda. 
There  is  no  special  bible  sense ;  there  is  no  authority 
of  scriptures  apart  from  their  self-evidence  and  the 
fruit  of  their  teaching.  They  do  not  proceed  from  a 
supreme  Person  (Iswara)  ;  for  since  one  liberated 
could  not  desire  to  make  them,  and  one  unliberated 
could  not  have  power,  no  such  supreme  Man  or  Lord 
can  have  been  their  author.  They  are  there;  a  breath 
of  self-existence ;  a  fact  in  other  words,  traceable  to 
no  special  mind.  That  is  all  that  can  be  said.1  Kap- 
ila, it  is  true,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  dispute  the 
Vedas.  But  he  called  them  "  self-evident  conveyers 
of  right  knowledge,  through  the  patentness  of  their 
power  to  instruct  rightly."  2  In  other  words,  he  rested 
his  respect  for  them  on  their  appeal  to  his  own  reason, 
and  judged  them  by  their  tendencies.  What  he  found 
contrary  to  his  intuition  and  his  judgment,  he  ascribed 
to  such  and  such  a  motive,  and  quietly  set  it  aside.3 
Their  central  idea  of  unity,  for  instance,  he  disposes 

1  A  ph.,  V.  40-51.      ^  2  Aphn  v.  51. 

8  Roer,  Introd.  to  Svetaivatara  Upan.,  p.  36. 

26 


402  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  thus:  "Such  texts  as,  'all  is  soul  alone,'  are  there 
r  for  the  sake  of  the  undiscriminating,'  l  to  help  the 
weak  to  meditation.'"1  In  view  of  all  this,  it  can 
hardly  be  supposed  that  Kapila  allowed  absolute 
authority  to  the  Vedas.  Decidedly,  criticism  of  the 
"  holy  text "  has  here  begun.  Its  later  development 
forms  a  striking  feature  of  the  Buddhist  and  Puranic 
systems,  which,  in  the  main,  follow  the  Sanklrya.2 

"  Scriptural  rites  and  forms  are  but  works  :    they  are  not  the 

Of  ritualism.    Chief  end   °f  man-"  3 

"  Pain  to  victims  must  bring  pain  to  the  sacrificer  of 
them."  4 

How  indeed,  with  his  intense  conviction  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  soul,  could  Kapila  believe  that  any  outward 
conformities  would  satisfy  its  desire  ?  To  know  itself 
is  its  wisdom  and  its  rest.  Here  is  what  he  says 
of  it:  — 

"  Soul  is  other  than  body  ;  not  material,  because  overseeing 
Of  spiritual  physical  nature,  and  because,  while  this  is  the  thing  ex- 
liberties,       perienced,  the  soul  it  is  that  experiences."  5 

"  Atoms  are  not  the  cause  of  it,  for  atoms  have  neither  pleasure 
nor  pain."" 

"  Light  does  not  pertain  to  the  unintelligent,  and  the  soul  is 
essential  light."  7 

"Mind,  as  product  of  undiscerning  activity  (Prak- 
riti)  and  as  made  of  parts,  is  perishable,  but  not  soul." 8 
It  is  an  error  to  mistake  even  mind,  as  such,  for  soul.9 

"  Only  soul  can  be  liberated  ;  because  only  that  can 
be  isolated,  in  which  blind,  changeful  qualities  are  but 
reflected,  and  do  not  constitute  its  essence."10    Simply, 

1  A  ph. ,  V.  63,  64.  2  Wilson's  Essays. 
3  Aph.,  I.  82.  *  Ibid.,  I.  84. 

5  Ibid.,  I.  139-142.  6  Ibid.,  I.  113. 

'  Ibid.,  I.  145.  s  ibid  ,  I.  136;  V.  70-73 

•     »  Ibid.,  I.  129.  »o  ibid.,  I.  144. 


SANKHYA.  4O3 

as  we  have  seen,  a  form  of  expressing  that  pure  in- 
dependence which  this  system  claims  for  spiritual 
substance,  or  rather  for  spiritual  integrity. 

"  The  soul  is  solitary,  uncompanioned  :  it  is  constant  freedom,  a 
witness,  a  seer."  l 

"  Liberation  is  not  through  works,  which  are  tran- 
sient;  nor  through  the  worship  of  the  All,  whatiiber- 
which  must  be  mingled  with  fancies  about  the  ation  is- 
world  ;  "  2  "  nor  through  the  desire  of  heaven,  for  that 
desire  is  to  be  shunned."3  "It  is  not  the  excision 
of  any  special  qualities  ;  not  possessions,  nor  magic 
powers  ;  not  going  away  to  any  world,  since  soul  is  im- 
movable, and  does  not  go  away;  not  conjunction  with 
the  rank  of  gods,  which  is  perishable ;  not  absorption 
of  the  part  into  the  whole ;  not  destruction  of  all ;  not 
the  void,  —  nor  yet  joy:"4  but  more  and  better  than 
all  these,  to  know  the  difference  which  separates  the 
undiscerning  movement  of  qualities,  or  tendencies  to 
goodness,  passion,  and  darkness  in  the  senses  and 
the  mind,  from  free  spiritual  being,  and  so  "  to  thirst 
no  more ;  " 5  "a  work  not  of  a  moment,  but  of  that 
complete  concentration  and  devotion,  which  has  many 
obstacles."  6 

How  finely  affirmative  through  all  this  negation  is 
Kapila's  appeal  to  pure  reason  to  prove  that  Appealt0 
bondage  is  not  essential  to  the  soul ; 7  that  for  reason- 
ever,  within  man,  whether  he  knows  it  or  not,  and  lifted 
above  the  possibility  of  subjection  to  evil,  witness  and 
seer,  watching  and  waiting  its  hour,  indefeasible  and 
inviolate,  is  the  principle  of  purity  and  freedom ! 8 
K  To  know  the  difference,  and  that  one  was  not  bound 

1  Aph.,  V.  63 ;  I.  162  ;  II.  29.  2  Aph.,  III.  26,  27. 

3  Ibid.,  III.  52.  *  Ibid.,  V.  74-83. 

5  Ibid.,  II.,  Vijnana  Bhikshur's  Introd. ;  so  Svetasvatara,  III.  10;  IV.  7-17. 

6  Ibid.,  II.  3-  '  A  ph. ,  I.  7,  &c.  s  Aph^  L  l62_ 


4O4  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

when  one  seemed  to  be  so,"1  —  is  Kapila's  idea  of 
"  liberation ; "  and  he  knew  it  was  not  to  be  reached 
without  paying  the  price  in  all  that  surrender  of  lower 
desires  on  which  he  insists. 

To  take  all  this  on  the  authority  of  pure  Reason  ; 
to  believe  it  because  it  seemed  most  rational  and  be- 
coming, and  so  to  stake  the  issues  of  life  upon  it,  —  is 
surely  an  achievement  for  all  ages  and  religions  to 
respect. 

For  this  great  work  of  liberation,  Prakriti  is  but  an 
instrument.      She,    the    really    bound,    "  binds 

All  is  for  '  .  . 

man's  ideal  herself  seven  ways,  but  becomes  liberated  in 
one  form  only,"  which  is  "  knowledge  "  of  the 
truth  of  things.2  All  is  thus  for  the  ideal  life  of  man. 
"The  soul  is  the  seer,  the  organs  are  its  instruments."3 
"Creation  is  for  the  soul's  sake,  from  Brahma  down 
to  a  post ;  till  there  be  liberation  thereof."4  "Nature 
serves  soul  like  a  born  slave ;"  "  creates  for  its  sake,  as 
the  cart  carries  saffron  for  its  master."5  And  "  sense" 
itself  becomes  "  supersensuous  "  through  this  necessity 
for  mind  as  the  explanation  of  its  phenomena.  "  It  is 
a  mistake  to  suppose  that  sense  is  identical  with  that 
in  which  it  is  seated."6 

That  all  this  inherent  sovereignty  is  ascribed  to 
every  individual  soul,  and  the  "  multiplicity  ot 
hyaathe-  souls  "  insisted  on,  has  been  thought  to  involve 
unbelief  in  unity  of  essence  above  this  multi- 
plicity of  individuals ;  and  hence  the  division  into 
"  Theistic  "  and  "  Atheistic  "  Sankhya  ;  Kapila  being 
regarded  as  representative  of  the  latter,  and  Patanjali 
of  the  former. 

It  is    true  that  Kapila's  jealousy   for  the  freedom 

1  Aph.,  I.  155.  *  Apk.,  III.  73.  •  8  Afih.,  II.  29. 

*  Ibid.,  III.  47.  5  Ibid.,  III.  51  ;  VI.  4°-        6  Ibid-,  II-  23. 


SANKHYA.  405 

and  self-subsistence  of  spirit  carried  him  to  the  fur- 
thest possible  isolation  of  its  essence,  in  each  and 
every  individual  being,  from  finite  conditions.  But 
the  Sankhya  cannot,  even  in  his  logic,  be  called  athe- 
istic. On  the  contrary,  as  Bunsen  has  noticed,  "  God, 
regarded  as  the  undivided  Unity,  therefore  the  eternal 
essence  of  minds  when  perfected,  is  an  assumption,  or 
postulate,  running  through  the  whole  system,  like 
that  of  the  existence  of  light  in  a  treatise  on  colors  ;  " 
and  fairly  inferrible,  as  a  "  Divine  Order  of  the  Uni- 
verse," from  the  "recognition  of  reason,  knowledge, 
righteousness,  as  common  attributes  of  these  individ- 
ual minds."  *  And  the  latest  translator  of  the  Bhajja- 
vadgita,  in  an  elaborate  review  of  Hindu  philosophy, 
asserts,  from  a  point  of  view  quite  different  from  Bun- 
sen's,  that  the  Sankhya  "  not  only  does  not  deny  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  but  even  hints  at  it  in 
referring  the  emanation  of  individual  souls  to  a  spirit- 
ual essence  gifted  with  volition."2  The  idea  of  a 
multiplicity  of  souls,  real,  endless,  and  eternally  dis- 
tinct from  body,  is  not  inconsistent  with  theism  ;  since 
the  Nyaya,  which  follows  the  Sankhya  in  this  belief, 
also  declares  the  Supreme  Soul  (Paramatma)  to  be 
"one,  eternally  wise,  and  the  source  of  all  things."3 
It  is  curious  to  note  how  similar,  in  many  respects, 
is  Patanjali's  description,  in  his  theistic  Yoga4  sys- 
tem, of  an  "  Iswara,"  or  Lord,  to  that  which  Kapila 
gives  of  "Soul,"  —  "untouched  by  troubles,  works, 
fruits,  or  deserts."  Were  not  both  seeking,  each  in 
his  own  way,  the  spiritual  ideal  in  its  independence  of 
limit    or    change?      Kapila  could  not  have   admitted 

1  God  in  History,  I.  336. 

2  Thomson's  Bhag.  Gita,  Introd.,  p.  lviii.    Such  definite  reference  to  emanation  I  have 
not  been  able  to  find  in  Kapik. 

3  Colebrooke's  Essays,  I.  26S.  4  "Yoga''  means  conjunction  (with  deity). 


406  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

an  Iswara,  like  that  of  the  Yoga,  who  is  in  one  sense 
distinct  from  all  actual  souls  ;  yet  his  conception  of  soul 
itself  afforded  ample  basis  for  the  idea  of  infinite  Mind. 
Theistic  scholiasts  on  Kapila's  aphorisms  affirm  that 
his  denial  of  an  Iswara  is  but  hypothetical,  not  abso- 
lute. It  would  have  been  more  correct  to  say  that  it 
did  not  deny  central  and  immanent  deity. 

In  truth  it  was  Kapila's  function  to  apply  a  disinte- 
grating analysis  to  the  monarchical  supper  naturalistic, 
as  well  as  to  the  blindly  pantheistic,  conceptions  of  his 
time. 

He  simply  shows  that  there  is  no  evidence  of  an 
Iswara,  or  Lord,  —  that  is,  of  a  "  governor  of  nature," 
in  such  a  sense  as  the  separation  of  soul  from  nature 
and  its  isolation  as  witness  forbade ;  one,  namely, 
whose  action  would  involve  imperfection  ;  the  sway  of 
some  "passion  "  or  desire;  a  certain  needy  "  working 
for  his  own  benefit  or  glory,  like  a  worldly  lord;"1 
one  whose  interference  should  be  necessary  to  the 
retributions  of  conduct,  —  an  inadmissible  condition, 
in  his  view ;  since  works  produced  their  consequences 
by  having  their  law  for  ever  in  themselves.  Christian 
theology  also  has  its  Is'wara.  The  interfering,  self- 
interested  Providence,  the  "  deus  ex  machina"  of  the 
supernaturalist,  is  found  in  all  religions,  whether  in 
early  or  late  stages,  wherever  there  is  an  unreasoning 
faith.  It  was  this  idea  of  a  mechanical  Deity  that 
Kapila  seems  to  have  rejected  so  positively  in  the 
name  of  an  inherent  virtue  in  the  constant  course  of 
things  ;  the  adequacy  of  those  laws  of  being  which  he 
sought  to  unfold.  And  the  like  protest  of  rationalism 
returns  to-day,  at  the  culmination  of  a  Semitic  faith 
also,   with  similar  sanctions  and  justifications.      The 

1  A  ph.,  V.  3,  4,  6. 


SANKHYA.  407 

selfishness  of  a  God  who  could  create  man  "  for  his 
own  glory,"  and  interfere  capriciously  with  the  laws 
he  has  made,  renders  denial  of  such  Iswara  a  duty 
still. 

All  this  is  not  positive  piety,  not  heartfelt  theism. 
But  neither  is  it  atheism.  It  does  not  deny  deity  to 
spirit.  It  denies  creation  and  interference  ab  extra, 
by  spirit ;  and  this,  in  order  to  exalt  it  above  all  that  is 
conditional,  and  to  isolate  it  so  that  it  may  affirm  its 
own  highest  ideal  of  freedom  and  self-subsistence. 
And,  with  all  its  emphasis  on  the  multiplicity  of  souls, 
it  constantly  describes  soul  as  stick,  —  not  souls,  but 
soul,  —  as  if  it  were  indeed  but  one  in  essence,  after 
all :  one  of  those  unconscious  confessions,  by  which 
all  reasoning  assumes  the  necessity  of  primal  unity  ;  in 
other  words,  of  God.  Love  indeed  does  not  move  in 
these  depths  of  logic.  But  the  intellect  also  has  its 
work  to  do,  and  we  have  here  a  legitimate  form  of  this 
work. 

If  Kapila  is  not  distinctly  ethical  and  theistic,  it  is, 
we  repeat,  because  he  is  not  teaching  a  religion,  but  a 
system  of  analytic  philosophy ;  because  the  Sankhya 
is  a  criticism,  not  a  confession  of  faith.  If  it  is  in- 
complete ;  if  it  does  not  fuse  its  own  elements  and 
reconcile  its  own  poles  of  thought,  it  is  yet  a  protest 
against  the  one-sided  mysticism  and  supernaturalism, 
which  do  not  sufficiently  guard  the  dignity  and  seren- 
ity of  spirit,  in  the  form  under  which  they  conceive  its 
relation  to  the  world. 

It  was   in  fact  found   easy  to   develop  out  of  the 
Sankhya    those    very    elements    of    universal  Fruitsofthe 
religion  which  it  failed  of  positively  affirming.  sankhya- 
Its  intellectual  criticism  was  the  condition  and  germ 
at  once  of  the  purest  theism  and  the  most  practical 


408  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

humanity  in  Oriental  history ;  of  lessons  in  love  and 
worship  which  Christendom  cannot  afford  to  despise 
nor  to  ignore. 

Its  clear  separation  of  soul  from  sense  was  unfolded 
into  the  theistic  Sankhya  and  the  Karma  Yoga  of 
the  Bhagavadgita,  in  which  the  old  Vedantic  panthe- 
ism is  inspired  with  the  thought  of  deity  as  both  inde- 
pendent and  providential ;  as  at  once  purely  spiritual, 
and  the  All  in  all. 

Its  free  dealing  with  bibliolatry  and  tradition,  its 
appeal  to  practical  reason,  and  its  trust  in  the  ade- 
quacy of  the  dialectic  faculty,  issued  not  only  in  the 
independence  of  the  best  Puranas  ;  but,  far  better  than 
this,  in  the  pure  democracy  and  boundless  brother- 
hood of  Buddhism,  —  a  gospel  of  "  mercy  for  all." 

Had  those  contemplative  philosophies  been  so  par- 
alyzing to  the  heart  and  will  as  they  would  at  first 
seem,  they  could  not  have  afforded  groundwork  for 
even  a  reaction  to  this  great  impulse,  Oriental  in  its 
scale  and  ardor,  to  emancipate  the  world  through 
love. 

Our  review  of  Hinduism  already  justifies  us  in  af- 
instinctof  firming  that  the  profound  intuition  of  Unity 
Unity.  traversed  the  whole  field  of  desire  and  belief, 
and  that  in  this  one  branch  of  the  Aryan  race  it  found 
scope  for  revealing  those  great  typical  moulds  in 
which  its  aspirations  are  elsewhere  found  to  grow. 


III. 

THE     BHAGAVAD-GITA. 


THE      BHAGAVAD-GITA. 


'T^HE  date  of  the  Bhagavadgita,  or  "  Divine  Lay," 
-^  the  most  important  episode  of  the  Ma-  The  Div;ne 
habharata,  although  uncertain,  cannot  be  far  Lay- 
distant  on  either  side  from  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era.1  It  embodies,  in  the  form  of  dialogue,  a 
revelation  by  Krishna,  as  incarnation  of  the  Supreme, 
to  the  hero  Arjuna,  on  the  field  of  Kuru  ;  and  the 
armies  of  two  opposing  dynasties,  about  to  join  battle, 
are  drawn  up  in  silence  to  await  the  close  of  this 
transcendental  communion  between  the  man  and  the 
god.  Its  initial  motive  is  to  remove  the  scruples  of 
the  prince  against  destroying  human  life,  which  have 
paralyzed  his  power  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  a  soldier 
and  a  ruler.  To  this  end  it  celebrates  the  sovereignty 
of  the  soul  over  the  body,  its  eternal  essence,  which 
death  cannot  harm,  and  the  fulfilment  of  personal 
duty  as  the  way  of  life  and  the  path  of  glory.  The 
use  of  such  arguments  to  reconcile  men  to  the  sternest 
obligations  involved  in  a  state  of  war  is  itself  an  im- 
pressive illustration  of  the  power  of  ideal  interests. 
It  contrasts  favorably  with  the  use  of  arguments  from 
immortality  to  justify  the  destruction  of  the  heretic's 
body  in  order  to  save  his  soul  from  eternal  woe,  or  to 

1  Thomson's  trans].,  Introd.,  p.  cxiv. ;  Lassen's  Preface-,  p-  xxxvi. 


^12  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

make  the  threat  of  future  punishment  more  appalling.1 
The  meditations  of  Arjuna  before  a  Hindu  epic  battle 
contrast  in  many  ways  with  the  prayers  of  Cromwell's 
soldiers  before  a  real  English  one.  They  are,  how- 
ever, alike  in  the  recognition  of  ideal  relations  in  the 
sternest  actual  work. 

But  this  is  incidental  to  the  great  purpose  of  the 
poem,  which  covers  the  whole  ground  of  theology, 
philosophy,  and  ethics.  It  is  the  final  flower  of 
Hindu  intellect  and  piety ;  the  summary  reconciliation 
and  poetic  fusion  of  the  best  elements  that  preceded 
it  in  the  mystical,  rationalistic,  and  practical  schools. 

It  is  better  known  to  modern  scholars  than  any 
other  production  of  Oriental  genius ;  having  been 
again  and  again  edited  with  rare  critical  industry,  re- 
sulting in  the  statement  of  Schlegel,  based  on  diligent 
comparison  of  a  great  number  of  manuscripts,  that 
the  differences  between  these  are  almost  impercep- 
tible ;  while  Lassen,  after  a  still  more  extended  use 
of  materials,  adds  but  fifteen  slight  emendations.2 
The  disagreement  among  translators  and  critics  on 
here  and  there  a  passage3  interferes  in  no  degree 
with  our  sense  of  possessing  an  accurate  transcript 
of  this,  the  most  important  of  all  records  of  Eastern 
faith,  into  the  languages  of  the  West.4  And  the  en- 
thusiasm of  its  European  students  almost  rivals  that 
veneration  which  in  India  has  assigned  it  a  place 
not  inferior  in  dignity  and  authority  to  the  Vedas 
themselves.6 

Wilhelm  von  Humboldt  celebrates  it  as  "  the  most 

i  See  Matt.  xii.  32  ;  xxv.  41.  2  Lassen,  p.  xxxiv. 

3  See  especially  Wilson's  criticisms  on  Lassen  and  Schlegel  (Essays  on  Sanks.  Litera- 
ture, vol.  Hi.). 

4  The  translations  consulted  in  the  present  chapter  are  Schlegel's  Latin  version,  edited 
by  Lassen  (1846),  and  the  English  versions  of  Wilkins  (1785)  and  Thomson  (1855). 

6  Lassen,  p.  xxvii. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  413 

beautiful,  perhaps  properly  the  only  true,  philosophical 
song,  that  exists  in  any  known  tongue."  Lassen 
shrinks  from  attempting  to  recommend  it,  lest  he 
should  imply  that  it  has  need  of  any  praise  of  his. 
Warren  Hastings  notes  a  "  sublimity  of  conception, 
reasoning,  and  diction,  almost  unequalled  ;  "  and  Schle- 
gel  closes  his  Latin  version  with  a  pious  invocation  of 
the  unknown  prophet  bard,  "whose  oracular  soul  is  as 
it  were  snatched  aloft  into  divine  and  eternal  truth 
with  a  certain  ineffable  delight." 

It  is  indeed,  though  not  without  its  imperfections 
like  the  rest,  one  of  the  grand  immortal  forms  in  relig- 
ious literature ;  an  eternal  word  of  the  Spirit  in  man. 

It  combines  in  broad  and  inspired  synthesis  the 
various  points  of  view  from  which  the  Hindu  Its  compre. 
schools  had  contemplated  the  union  of  philoso-  hensiveness- 
phy  and  faith.  Opening  with  the  practical  doctrine 
of  duty,  as  conceived  by  the  Yoga,  it  unfolds  the  Idea 
of  God  from  the  best  side  of  the  Vedanta,  and  the 
speculative  analysis  of  man's  spiritual  relations  after 
the  formulas  and  in  the  freedom  of  the  Sankhya,  and 
ends  with  the  substance  of  mystical  piety,  —  deliver- 
ance, through  self-renunciation  and  devotion,  into 
union  with  deity. 

It  adheres  indeed  to  the  system  of  caste ;  yet  seeks 
to  soften  its  injustice  x  by  declaring  perfection  Its  univer. 
open  to  all  who  do  faithfully  their  own  work,  sality- 
and  making  this  very  dogma  of  natural  subordination 
emphasize  the  call  to  every  class  to  seek  refuge  in 
God.  Even  while,  with  the  old  contempt  which 
Buddhism  had  repudiated  so  nobly,  it  once  mentions 
women  with  the  lowest   castes,  it   yet  declares  that 

1  A  method  not  unlike  that  of  the  early  Christian  teachers  touching  s!avery. 


414 


RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 


all  who   resort  to  God  will  reach   the  highest  goal.1 
Krishna  says  :  — 

"  I  have  neither  friend  nor  foe  :  I  am  the  same  to  all.  And  all 
who  worship  me  dwell  in  me,  and  I  in  them."  2 

"  To  them  who  love  me,  I  give  that  devotion  by  which  they 
come  at  last  to  me."  3 

"  The  soul  in  every  creature's  body  is  invulnerable  ; 4  and  none 
who  has  faith,  however  imperfect  his  attainment,  or  however  his 
heart  have  wandered  from  right  discipline,  shall  perish,  either  in 
this  world  or  in  another.  He  shall  have  new  births,  till,  purified 
and  made  perfect,  he  reaches  the  supreme  abode." 5 

"  Mankind  turn  towards  my  path  in  every  manner,  and  accord- 
ing as  they  approach  me  so  do  I  reward  them."  6 

Deity  here  is  not  abstraction,  but  speaks  to  man  as 
.  .  Creator,  Preserver,   Friend.     Krishna   is   the 

Its  god  inti- 
mate with     companion  and  intimate  counsellor  of  Arjuna, 

revealing  to  him  out  of  pure  love 7  the  law 

of  duty  and  the  path  of  immortal  life  ;  yet  preserving 

the  majesty  and  mystery  of  the  Infinite.     This  is  the 

"Supreme   Universal   Spirit,"  above   and  behind  the 

universe,  as  well  as  its  inmost  substance  ;  the  Maker 

as  well  as  the  All.     "  1  am  the  origin  of  all ;    from  me 

all    proceeds."8     "Thou,"  says  Arjuna,   "thou  only, 

knowest  thyself  by  thyself,  O  Creator  and  Lord  of 

all  that  exists,  God  of  gods,  most  ancient  of  Beings  !"9 

And  Krishna  says,  "I  am  the  soul  that  exists  in  the 

heart  of  all  beings.     I  am  the  beginning,  the  middle, 

the  end,  of  all  things."10 

He  is  death  as  well  as  life  ;  absorbing  all  forms,  to 

,     . .      the    terror  of  the  finite  worshipper ;    yet  the 

The  vision  . 

of  Time  as   terror  is  not  meant  to  be  final.     Arjuna  would 

behold  the  whole  infinite  of  deity  with  mortal 

eyes.      His  prayer  is  answered  ;   and  he   sees  what 

1  Bh.  G.,  ch.  ix.  2  Ibid.  s  Ibid.,  ch.  x.  *  Ibid.,  ch.  ii. 

6  Ibid.,  ch.  vi.  6  Ibid.,  ch.  iv.  '  Ibid.,  ch.  x.  8  Ibid.,  ch.  x. 

9  The  term  is  Purus/ta,  01  person,  ch.  x.  10  Ibid.,  ch.  x. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  415 

mortal  eyes  can  see,  the  onward  sweep  of  atoms  and 
worlds  and  souls  from  life  to  death.  This  is  the  terri- 
ble, all-devouring  form  under  which  the  god  appears. 
The  mystery  of  time,  whelming  all  objects  of  sense,  is 
concentrated  into  One  Visible  Shape,  clothed  by  the 
tropical  imagination,  which  most  dreads  the  power  of 
fire,  in  terrors  and  splendors  that  no  eye  can  endure. 
The  transient,  for  ever  vanishing  into  the  bosom  of 
the  eternal,  stands  manifest  in  one  immeasurable  sym- 
bol. Flaming  mouths  and  ventral  abysses  open  to 
engulf  it ;  down  these,  through  rows  of  dreadful 
teeth,  the  human  heroes  rush,  by  their  own  will,  as 
full  streams  roll  on  to  meet  the  ocean,  as  troops  of 
insects  seek  their  death  in  the  taper's  flame.1  Very 
apt  symbolism  it  is,  in  view  of  the  other  and  immediate 
purpose,  to  reconcile  the  hero  to  the  dread  necessity 
of  carnage  that  fronted  the  assembled  hosts. 

As  in  the  old  Hebrew  legends  men  fall  upon  their 
faces   before    the   vision   of  Jehovah,   so  is  it  its  friendly 
with  Arjuna  here.     But  this  "awe  is  mingled  meanins- 
with  delight."      And  its  cry  of  trust  is,  — 

"  Thou  shouldst  bear  with  me,  O  God  !  as  a  father  with  his  son, 
as  a  friend  with  his  friend,  a  lover  with  his  beloved.  Be  gracious, 
O  habitation  of  the  universe !  show  me  thy  other  [more  human] 
form." 2 

And  the  vision  of  destruction  vanishes,  when  the 
divine  relations  of  destruction  are  thus  made  plain, 
into  the  familiar  shape  of  the  companion  and  friend. 
Through  the  terrors  of  Death  and  Time,  that  eternal 
good-will  has  been  abiding  unchangeable  ;  and  the 
sublimest  lesson  of  life  is  learned. 

"  Be  not  alarmed,  nor  troubled,  at  having  seen  this  my  terrible 

1     Bh.  G  ,  ch.  xi.  2  Ibid. 


41 6  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

form.     But  look  free  from  fear,  with  happy  heart,  upon  this  other 
form  of  mine. 

"  That  which  thou  hast  seen  is  very  difficult  to  behold  ;  not  to 
be  seen  by  studying  the  Vedas,  nor  by  mortifications,  nor  alms- 
givings, nor  sacrifices.  Even  the  gods  are  always  anxious  to  be- 
hold that  form.  But  only  by  worship,  which  is  rendered  to  me 
alone,  am  I  to  be  seen,  and  known  in  truth,  and  obtained.  He 
cometh  to  me  whose  works  are  done  for  me,  who  holdeth  me 
supreme  ;  who  is  my  servant  only  ;  who  hath  abandoned  all  conse- 
quences, and  liveth  amongst  all  men  without  enmity."  ' 

This  Hindu  form  of  the  faith  that  deity  is  present  in 
TT.  ,      ,    human  shape,  to  teach,  console,  instruct,  and 

Hindu  and  r 

christian  in- save  men,  and  to  make  clear  and  sweet  to 
them  the  mysteries  of  death  and  change, 
differs  from  the  Christian  idea  of  incarnation,  as  set 
forth  in  the  gospel  of  John,  in  this  respect  among 
others,  that  it  does  not  seek  to  confine  the  freedom  of 
the  universal  and  infinite  to  a  single  historic  form. 
Krishna,  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  the  all-pervading 
Preserver,  is  not  claimed  to  be  the  only  possible  Word 
of  God  in  the  flesh  for  all  time.  Not  once  for  all  is 
this  immanent  life  invested  in  a  man. 

"  Although  I  am  not  in  my  nature  subject  to  birth  or  decay,  and 
am  lord  of  all  created  beings,  yet  in  my  command  over  nature  as 
mine  own,  I  am  made  evident  by  my  own  (maya)  power ;  and  as 
often  as  there  is  a  decline  of  virtue  and  insurrection  of  vice  and 
injustice  in  the  world,  I  make  myself  evident ;  and  thus  I  appear, 
from  age  to  age,  for  the  preservation  of  the  just,  the  destruction  of 
evil-doers,  and  the  establishment  of  virtue."  2 

This  is  the  Krishna  of  philosophy ;  but  it  expressed 
a  truth  that  lay  deep  in  the  religious  instinct  of  the 
people. 

Accordingly,  for  the  worship  of  the  "all-pervading 
Preserver,"   incarnation,  or  avatdra  (descent),   runs 

1  Bk.  G.,  ch.  xi.  a  Ibid.,  ch.  iv. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  417 

through  every  form  of  life,  beginning  in  earliest  ages 
with  the  creatures  in  which  it  was  supposed  that  the 
primitive  piety  of  mankind  must  have  beheld  deity, 
and  passing  on  through  a  series  of  saints,  heroes, 
redeemers,  to  a  final  judge,  so  reaching  to  the  bounds 
of  time.  In  the  latest  Puranas  no  less  than  twenty- 
two  of  these  avataras  are  ascribed  to  this  unfailing 
providence ; x  not  all  indeed  of  a  noble  or  worthy 
quality,  but  such  as  the  varying  degrees  of  spiritual 
and  moral  intelligence  in  the  worshippers  compelled. 

It  has  never  been  shown  that  any  appreciable  influ- 
ence was  exerted  by  Christianity  upon  the  for-  Avatara  sys- 
mation  of  this  Avatara  system  of  the  Hindus.  *em  "ot  due 

J  to  Christian 

Neither  the  Apostle  Thomas,  nor  Nestorian  influence. 
Christians  from  Syria,  nor  a  stray  legend  about  some 
distant  realm  of  mystical  monotheists,  that  turns  up 
among  the  leaves  of  the  old  epic,  nor  traces  of  very 
secluded  and  unimportant  Christian  settlements  in  later 
times  upon  the  coasts  of  India,  can  be  made  available 
for  refuting  the  claim  of  Hindu  religious  genius  to  unin- 
terrupted assurance  that  preserving  deity  is  manifested 
in  constantly  renewed  forms  upon  the  earth..  Lassen, 
after  a  careful  inquiry  into  the  traditions  of  a  Christian 
origin  of  this  belief,  reaches  the  conclusion  that  we 
cannot  ascribe  to  missionaries  of  the  church  any  in- 
fluence whatever  in  shaping  these  religious  concep- 
tions of  the  Hindus.2 

The  Krishna  Avatara,  in  special,  has  been  sup- 
posed, not  only  from    the    resemblance   between  the 

1  See  Lassen's  account  of  them  in  Indisclie  Alterthumskunde,  IV.  57S-586.  Also 
note  on  Thomson's  BJiag.  G.,  p.  147. 

2  Weber  {Ind.  Stud.,  I.  400)  and  Hardwick  (Christ  and  other  Masters,  I.  254)  main- 
tain the  theory  of  Christian  influence ;  but  all  its  points  seem  to  be  fully  met  by  Lassen, 
and  no  real  evidence  has  been  adduced  in  its  defence.  There  is  no  proof  whatever  that  the 
Apostle  Thomas  ever  saw  India,  and  none  that  Nestorian  missions  had  any  influence  there 
before  the  fifth  century. 

^7 


418  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

names  Krishna  and  Christ,  but  from  certain   corres- 
„ .  .    , ,    pondences  in  the  later  Puranic  legends  with 

Origin  of  the  r  ° 

Krishna  those  of  the  infancy  of  Jesus,  to  have  origi- 
nated in  these  relations  with  Christianity.  But 
the  resemblances  are  of  slight  import ;  and  the  belief 
itself  goes  back,  at  the  latest,  to  the  time  of  Megas- 
thenes,  three  centuries  before  the  Christian  era.  This 
writer  describes  Krishna  as  the  Indian  Hercules,  who 
had  "traversed  the  whole  earth  and  sea,  to  purify 
them  from  evil ;  "  and  even  identifies  his  worship  with 
Mathura,  the  native  place  of  Krishna  in  the  legend.1 

The  similarity  of  the  names,  Krishna  and  Christ,  is 
its  possible  purely  accidental.  The  word  Krishna  means 
relations.  f/ie  friacfc,  And  it  forms  the  pivot  of  a  very 
curious  tendency  among  the  Aryan  Hindus  to  vener- 
ate that  very  color  which  they  despised  in  the  aborigi- 
nal tribes  of  India,  and  which  marked  the  lowest  and 
most  degraded  of  the  castes.  For,,  in  spite  of  these 
antagonisms,  strange  symbols  of  a  deeper  brother- 
hood seem  to  crop  out  in  several  interesting  myths, 
both  philosophical  and  poetic.  Here,  for  instance,  in 
the  Bhagavadgita,  Krishna,  or  the  black,  is  the  intimate 
friend  and  divine  counsellor  of  Arjuna,  or  the  white,  — 
a  feature  which  cannot  be  accidental.  And  in  the 
Vishnu  Purana,  Vishnu  sends  two  of  his  hairs,  the 
one  white,  the  other  black,  to  remove  by  their  joint 
virtue  the  miseries  of  the  whole  earth.  I  can  hardly 
help  believing  that  this  respect  for  the  dark  skin  points 
to  very  early  recognitions  of  a  common  humanity ; 
and  it  is  not  improbable  that  Krishna  worship  itself  is 
the  mark  of  some  profound  influence  exerted  on  the 
faith  of  the  aristocratic  Aryans  by  the  conquered  tribes 
of  India.     The  generally  democratic  character  of  this 

1  Lassen,  I.  647;  II.  1107. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  419 

wide-spread  and  deeply  rooted  form  of  worship  would 
thus  be  explained.  And  the  exaltation  of  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  enslaved  race  as  divine  guide  of  their 
white  master,  in  the  noblest  intellectual  achievement 
his  literature  can  boast,  is  a  piece  of  fine  poetic  justice, 
which  gives  dignity  to  the  whole  history  of  the  Hindus. 
And  it  associates  the  oldest  with  the  latest  phases  of 
our  Aryan  pride  of  race,  in  a  common  lesson  for  com- 
ing time. 

From  the  early  period  above  mentioned,  down  to 
the  latest  Purana,  the  Bhacravata,  in  the  thir-   T   L. 

0  Its  history. 

teenth  century,  Krishna  comes  constantly  into 
view,  in  the  utmost  variety  of  forms,  —  as  protecting 
hero ;  as  saint  and  sage,  mastering  evil  spirits  instead 
of  physical  and  outward  enemies ;  as  inspired  shep- 
herd boy,  idyllic  lover  of  the  country  maidens,  and 
wonder-worker  in  the  spheres  of  popular  interests 
and  pursuits ;  assuming  in  the  epic  mythology,  where 
all  the  numberless  rills  of  popular  belief  have  flowed 
together,  all  imaginable  powers  and  forms  of  charac- 
ter.1 He  says  in  the  Bhagavadgita,  "  I  am  represen- 
tative of  the  supreme  and  incorruptible,  of  eternal  law 
and  endless  bliss."2 

In  the  Bhagavata  Purana  he  is  exalted  as  the  ideal 
centre  of  all  virtues,  human  and  divine ;  and  saviour 
of  men  through  the  blessings  he  bestows  on  all  who 
enter  his  spiritual  being  through  meditation  and  holy 
discipline.3  His  worship  is  thus  a  purely  native  prod- 
uct of  Hindu  sentiment.  And  the  sublime  assertion, 
in  the  Bhagavadgita,  of  his  incarnation  whenever 
right  needs  to  be  re-established  and  wrong  to  be  over- 
turned, requires  no  other  explanation  than  an  intuitive 

1  Muir's  Sanskrit  Texts,  vol  iv.  -  Ibid.,  ch.  xiv. 

3  See  Th.  Pavie's  Krishna  et  sa  Doctrine  (Paris,  1S52) 


420  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

faith  in  the  intimate  union  of  deity  with  life  and  the 
world. 

We  may  further  observe,  as  characteristic  of  Hindu 
Relation  to  religious'  development,  an  effort  in  the  history 
pantheism.  0f  Krishna-worship  to  purify  pantheism  of  its 
cruder  elements.  The  pantheistic  sense  of  divine  im- 
manence and  universality  naturally  involves  profound 
moral  and  spiritual  meaning.  With  the  advance- 
ment of  thought,  such  better  significance  is  brought 
to  the  interpretation  of  popular  beliefs  of  whatever 
nature.  Krishna  is  the  common  term  which  Hindu- 
ism has  maintained  as  the  thread  of  its  religious 
tradition ;  and,  in  the  heterogeneous  web  of  the  Ma- 
habharata,  all  its  meaning  for  the  popular  mind  has 
been  wrought  over  in  the  interest  of  the  higher  form 
of  pantheism  just  mentioned.  So  that  the  Ki-ishna  of 
the  epic  presents  the  very  noblest  traits  which  the 
Hindu  mind  was  able  to  conceive,  as  will  be  seen 
hereafter. 

The  play  of  illusion,  under  which  his  assumption  of 
all  forms  of  human  sympathy  and  desire  is  believed 
by  the  more  spiritually-minded  to  be  masked,  is 
frequently  lifted  away,  revealing  what  is  held  to  be 
his  inmost  reality,  by  which  the  often  questionable 
phenomena  are  to  be  mystically  interpreted ;  a  pro- 
cess of  compromise  to  which  all  distinctive  religions 
have  in  their  different  ways,  from  time  to  time,  sub- 
jected their  sacred  books.  The  substance  of  this 
higher  pantheism  is  expressed  in  language  like  the 
following  :  — 

"  Know  that  Dharma  (righteousness)  is  my  first-born  beloved 
Son,  whose  nature  is  to  have  compassion  on  all  creatures.  In  his 
character,  I  exist  among  men,  both  present  and  past,  in  different 
disguises  and  forms.    While  all  men  live  in  unrighteousness,  I,  the 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  421 

unfailing,  build  up  the  bulwark  of  right,  as  the  ages  pass.  Assuming 
various  divine  births  to  promote  the  good  of  all  creatures,  I  act 
according  to  my  nature."  l 

Upon  this  grand  postulate  of  the  constant  presence 
and  watchful   intimacy   of  deity  with  man,  as  sympathies 
guide  and  deliverer,  the  Bhagavadgita  sought  "jf*"^,,. 
to  unfold  the  sympathies  of  past  and  present  avadgita. 
forms  of  faith. 

It  declared  that  knowledge  and  action  are  one  in 
worship.2 

"  Children  only,  not  the  wise,  speak  of  the  Sankhya  (rational) 
and  the  Yoga  (devotional)  religious  systems  as  different.  He  who 
sees  their  unity  sees  indeed.  The  place  which  is  gained  by  the 
followers  of  the  one  is  gained  by  the  followers  of  the  other." 3 

"  He  who  can  behold  inaction  in  action,  and  action  in  inaction,  is 
wise  amongst  mankind."  4 

"  There  are  divers  ways  of  sacrificing  ;  and  all  purify  men.  But 
the  worlds  are  not  for  him  who  worships  not."  ~° 

For  one  to  reach  this  higher  point  of  spiritual  recog- 
nition, the  Veda,  with  the  subtle  questions  Bibieand 
thereon  that  have  distracted  the  conscience,  motors, 
must  have  become  secondary,  and  be  held  as  transient 
means  to  a  spiritual  end. 

"  When  thy  mind  shall  have  worked  through  the  snares  of  illu- 
sion, thou  wilt  become  indifferent  to  traditional  belief.  When  thy 
mind,  liberated  from  the  Vedas,6  shall  abide  fixed  in  contemplation, 
thou  shalt  then  attain  to  real  worship." 7 

"Thou  shalt  find  it  in  due  time,  spontaneously,  within  thyself."8 

This  freer  treatment  of  the  K  sacred  scriptures  "  de- 

'  Mahaih.,  XIV.  *  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  iii.  3  Ibid.,  ch.  v. 

4  Ibid.,  ch.  iv.  B  Ibid.,  ch.  iv. 

6  So  Thomson  translates  nirveda,  which  according  to  Wilson  also  {Essays  on  Sanskr. 
Lit.,  III.  128)  means  "certainty  of  the  futility  of  the  Vedas."  Schlegel  translates  the 
passage  thus:  "  sententiis  theologicis  antea  distracta."  Only  Wilkins  differs:  his  reading 
is,  ''  by  study  brought  to  maturity,"  which  can  hardly  be  correct. 

7  BJuig.  G.,  ch.  ii.  8  Ibid.,  ch.  iv. 


42  2  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

serves  notice,  as  showing  how  strong  is  the  demand, 
Reactions  even  in  a  race  whose  faith  naturally  turns  to 
Hoktr^.  '  "  the  past,  for  escape  from  a  bible-worship, 
which  still  dominates  far  more  enlightened  communi- 
ties. In  every  great  form  of  Hindu  philosophy  we  find 
this  opening  upward  into  freedom  from  sacred  text  and 
rite.  The  Vedanta  declares  "the  science  of  the  Vedas 
inferior  to  the  science  of  soul."  The  Sankhya  denies 
the  eternity  of  the  hymns,  and  asserts  fullest  liberty 
of  interpretation.  The  Bhagavadgita  holds  real  wor- 
ship to  be  that  in  which  the  Vedas  have  no  further 
place,  having  done  their  work,  and  given  way  to  the 
vision  and  enjoyment  of  deity.  The  Ramayana  and 
Mahabharata  speak  of  themselves  as  equal  to  the 
Vedas.  The  Puranas,  in  general,  go  much  further. 
The  Bhagavadgita  says  :  — 

"  As  great  as  is  the  use  of  a  well  when  it  is  surrounded  by  over- 
flowing waters,  so  great  and  no  greater  is  the  use  of  the  Vedas  to  a 
Brahman  endowed  with  knowledge." 

But  the  Bhagavata  Purana  :  — 

"Men  do  not  worship  the  Supreme  when  they  worship  Him  as 
circumscribed  by  the  attributes  specified  in  the  hymns.  Thou  who 
strewest  the  earth  with  thy  sacrificial  grass,  and  art  proud  of  thy 
numerous  immolations,  knowest  not  what  is  highest  work  of  all." 

The  Brahmanas  speak  of  the  limitations  of  the 
Vedas  in  the  same  tone.  Even  Manu  perceives  that 
the  spirit  must  interpret  the  text,  to  make  it  of  service. 
The  progress  of  experience  brought  fresh  inspirations 
that  criticised  the  older  ones ;  and  there  were  bitter 
controversies  between  the  supporters  of  the  different 
Vedas,  fatal  to  the  pretence  of  inviolable  authority  in 
either.1 

1  See  texts  in  Muir,  III.  ch.  i. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  423 

The  "  spiritual  knowledge  "  which  is  to  be  substituted 
for  all  written  or  traditional  obiects  of  faith,  „  . .    ,. 

J  Spirituality. 

as  the  supreme  end  of  life,  is  called  jndna.1 

The  Bhagavadgita.  describes  what  it  reveals  as  deity, 

in  terms  most  clearly  expressive  of  spiritual  being :  — 

"It  is  that  which  hath  no  beginning,  and  is  supreme;  not  the 
existent  alone,  nor  the  non-existent  alone  ;  with  hands  and  feet  on  all 
sides,  at  the  centre  of  the  world  comprehending  all ;  exempt  from  all 
organs,  yet  shining  with  the  facvdties  of  all ;  unattached,  yet  sustain- 
ing everything;  within  and  without;  afar,  yet  near;  the  light  of 
lights,  the  wisdom  that  is  to  be  found  by  wisdom,  implanted  in 
every  breast."  2 

"  The  recompense  of  devotion  is  greater  than  any  that  can  be 
promised  to  the  study  of  the  Vedas,  or  the  practice  of  independ- 
austerities,  or  the  giving  of  alms."  3  ence. 

"  Better  than  material  sacrifice  is  the  sacrifice  of  spiritual 
wisdom."  4 

"  Men  are  seduced  from  the  right  path  by  that  flowery  sentence 
proclaimed  by  the  unwise,  who  delight  in  texts  from  the  Vedas,  and 
say,  '  there  is  nothing  else  than  that,'  covetous  of  heaven  as  the 
highest  good,  offering  regeneration  as  the  reward  of  mere  perform- 
ances, and  enjoining  rites  for  the  sake  of  pleasures  and  powers."  5 

"The  worship  of  personages  as  divine  bestowers  of  all  good 
seeks  to  propitiate  such  personages  ;  and  receives,  as  from  them,  its 
reward,  which  yet  comes  after  all  only  from  God.  But  the  reward 
of  these  disciples  of  little  mind  is  finite.  They  who  worship  gods 
go  to  their  gods.  They  who  worship  me  come  to  me.  Only  the 
unwise  believe  that  I,  who  neither  am  born  nor  die,  am  confined 
to  a  visible  form." 6 

While  the  power  of  attaining  union  with  essential 
truth  and  good,  independently  of  permanent  Etk!cal  cul. 
or  exclusive  mediators,  is  thus  affirmed  as  in-  ture ;  action. 
dispensable  to  the  highest  life,  the  ethical  conditions 
of  such  attainment  are  not  slighted.  The  authority 
of  the  moral  nature  has  all  due  reverence. 

1  Compare  Greek  yvuctx;,  Latin  nosco,  Saxon  know.  2  Bhag.  G-,  ch.  xiii. 

3  Ibid.,  ch.  viii.  *  Ibid.,  ch.  iv.  «  Ibid.,  ch.  ii.  •  Ibid.,  ch.  vii. 


424  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

What  is  the  secret  of  duty  ?  O  Arjuna  !  the  old 
eternal  answer,  —  the  soul  knows  no  other  :  —  Master 
the  senses,  and  subdue  desires.  Of  all  actions  the  con- 
sequences are  bonds  determined  and  inevitable.  What 
is  the  self-centred  act,  what  the  pleasure  of  mere 
physical  contact,  that  comes  but  to  pass  again,  leaving 
unsatisfied  desire  behind  it,  but  "  a  womb  of  pain  "  ? 
Is  then  all  activity  to  be  renounced  ?     By  no  means. 

"  No  one  ever  resteth  a  moment  inactive.  Every  one  is  in- 
voluntarily urged  to  act,  by  principles  which  are  inherent  in  his 
nature.  Inertness  is  not  piety.  Perform,  then,  thy  functions. 
Action  is  better  than  inaction." 

"  But  as  this  world  entails  the  bonds  of  action  on  every  work 
but    that  which  has  worship    for  its   object,    therefore   abandon, 

0  son  of  Kunti !  all  selfish  motive,  and  perform  thy  duty  for  God 
alone." 

"Even  if  thou  considerest  only  the  good  of  mankind,  still  thou 
shouldst  act.  For  what  good  men  practise,  others  will  practise 
likewise." 

"  I  have  no  need  of  any  good,  that  I  should  be  obliged  to  do  any 
thing  throughout  the  three  worlds  ;  yet  do  I  for  ever  work.     For  if 

1  did  not,  —  men  follow  in  my  steps  in  all  things,  and  the  people 
would  perish."  l 

"  But  every  work  is  comprehended  in  wisdom  :  seek  thou  this, 
by  worship,  inquiry,  service."  2 

"  Whoso  abandons  all  interest  in  the  reward  of  his  actions  shall 
be  contented  and  free  :  though  engaged  in  work,  he,  as  it  were, 
doeth  nothing.  The  same  in  success  and  failure,  even  though  he 
aqts  he  is  not  bound  by  the  bonds  of  action.  His  mind  led  by 
spiritual  knowledge,  and  his  work  done  for  the  sake  of  worship, 
his  own  action  is,  as  it  were,  dissolved  away." 

"  God  is  the  gift,  the  sacrifice,  the  altar-fire ;  God  the  maker 
of  the  offering ;  and  God,  the  object  of  his  meditation,  is  by  him 
attained."  2 

"  Let  thy  motive  lie  in  the  deed,  and  not  in  the  reward :  perform 
M   .       thy   duty,    and   make    the    event  equal,  whether  it    ter- 
minate in  good  or  ill.     This  is  devotion." 3 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  iii.  i  Ibid.,  ch.  iv.  3  Ibid.,  ch.  ii. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  425 

"  He  who  puts  aside  self-interest  is  not  tainted  by  sin,  but  re- 
mains unaffected,  as  the  lotus-leaf  is  not  wet,  by  the  waters."  l 

"  What  is  given  for  the  sake  of  a  gift  in  return,  or  for  the  sake 
of  the  fruit  of  the  action,  or  reluctantly,  is  a  gift  of  inferior  quality."  2 

"  Whatever  thou  doest,  do  as  offering  to  the  Supreme."  3 

"  He  who  casts  off  desires,  he  into  whose  heart  desires  enter  but 
as  rivers  run  into  the  never-swelling,  passive  ocean,  he  is    Mastery  of 
tranquil ;  and  there  springs  in  him  separation  from  all   desires, 
trouble.     He  only  whose  thoughts  are  gathered  in  meditation  can 
find  rest."  4 

"  The  wise  are  troubled  to  determine  what  is  action  and  what  is 
not.  I  will  tell  thee  the  path  of  deliverance.  He  is  the  doer  of 
duty  who  beholds  inaction  in  action,  and  action  in  inaction,  free 
from  the  sense  of  desire  :  his  action  is  consumed  by  the  fire  of 
knowledge."  5 

"  As  a  candle  placed  in  shelter  from  the  wind  does  not  flicker, 
so  is  he  who,  with  thoughts  held  in  devotion,  delighteth  in  his  soul, 
knowing  the  boundless  joy  that  the  mind  attains  beyond  sense, 
whereon  being  fixed  it  moveth  not  from  truth  ;  and  who,  having 
attained  it,  regardeth  no  other  attainment  as  so  great  as  it  is,  nor 
is  moved  by  severest  pain."  6 

"  Seek  refuge  in  thy  mind." 7 

"  Let  one  raise  his  soul  by  his  own  means  :    let  him  not  lower 
his  soul ;  for  he  is  his  soul's  friend  or  enemy.     He  who  gelf-respect 
has  subdued  himself  by  his  soul  finds  that  'self  which, 
by  reason  of  the  enmity  of  what  is  not  spiritual,  might  be  a  foe, 
the  friend  of  his  soul." 8 

"  Draw  in  the  senses  from  objects  of  sense,  as  the  tortoise 
its  limbs  ;  for  when  the  heart  follows  their  roaming  it  Spirituality 
snatches  away  spiritual  wisdom  as  a  wind  a  ship  on  the  of  purpose, 
waves."  9 

Yet  even  in  the  practice  of  ascetic  disciplines,  com- 
mended to  the  devotee  who  would  concentrate  .,  ,     . 

Moderation. 

his  mind  on  God  alone,  excess  is  discounten- 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch-  v.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  xvii.  3  Ibid.,  ch.  ix. 

4  Ibid.,  ch.  ii.  6  Ibid-,  ch.  iv.  6  Ibid.,   ch   vi. 

7  Ibid.,  ch   ii.  8  Ibid.,  ch.  vi.  9  Ibid.,  ch.  ii. 


426  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

anced ;  and  fanatical  abstinence  from  food,  sleep, 
recreation,  action,  are  discouraged,  —  he  only  being  a 
true  devotee  who  is  moderate  in  all  things,  and,  above 
all,  in  his  desires.1  How  these  opposite  tendencies 
are  reconciled  does  not  indeed  appear.  It  has  been 
supposed  *2  that  indifference  to  results  was  substituted 
for  abandonment  of  action,  from  a  sense  of  the  neces- 
sity of  modifying  the  strictness  of  ascetic  practices, 
which  is  very  probable. 

Such  are  the  cultures  of  piety,  —  contemplative 
practical  mainly,  and  in  their  final  aim.  But  practical 
virtues.  virtues  are  held  as  equally  imperative.  Such 
are  fearlessness,  temperance,  rectitude,  veracity,  a 
harmless  spirit,  freedom  from  anger,  liberality,  mod- 
esty, gentleness,  benevolence  towards  all,  stability, 
energy,  fortitude,  patience,  purity,  resolution,  and  the 
absence  of  vindictiveness  and  conceit.3  These  are 
enforced  as  positive  duties.  They  are  described,  also, 
as  the  path  of  those  who  are  "  born  to  the  lot  of  divine 
beings,"  while  those  who  have  them  not  gravitate  the 
other  way. 

All  actual  conditions  were,  to  the  Hindu,  profoundly 
Natural  retrospective.  They  must  somehow  find  their 
destiny.  ground  in  the  determinations  of  a  divine  Order. 
There  was  more  in  moral  good  and  evil  than  mere 
fruit  of  culture.  And  to  be  "  born  to  the  lot "  of  divine 
or  depraved  beings  must  of  course  have  meant  some- 
thing beyond  caste-distinctions.  A  sense  of  destiny 
came  mightily  down  on  the  dreamer's  vision,  as  he 
thought  of  the  prodigious  force  of  natural  endow- 
ment in  determining  the  paths  of  conduct.  Virtues 
were  upward  tracks,  for  which,  it  was  plain,  some  had 

1  Bhag.  G;  ch.  vi.  2  Wilson,  III.  no.  3  Bhag.  G-,  ch.  xvi. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  427 

a  kind  of  natural  fore-ordination  ;  while  the  birth-doom 
of  others  drove  them  in  the  opposite  direction  into 
correspondent  vices.  And  here  the  poet's  moral  judg- 
ment seems  too  much  absorbed  in  the  sense  of  inevi- 
table consequence  to  recognize  that  apparent  injustice 
in  such  predestinations,  which  demanded  solution. 
And  he  turns  the  evil-doers  away *  upon  their  down- 
ward path  of  bestial  transmigrations,  with  as  little 
apparent  sympathy  as  is  conveyed  in  that  kindred 
sentence  from  another  gospel :  "  These  shall  go 
away  into  everlasting  punishment,  but  the  righteous 
into  life  eternal."  Doubtless  in  the  one  case,  as  in 
the  other,  the  special  aspect  under  which  moral  evil 
was,  for  the  moment,  intensely  conceived,  excluded 
other  and  kindlier  elements  of  faith,  which  elsewhere 
enter  into  both  these  gospels,  though  in  different  ways. 
With  the  Hindu,  the  deliverance  from  these  bonds  of 
destiny  might  surely  be  found  in  the  all-embracing 
mystic  unity  of  spiritual  life,  as  with  the  Hebrew  in 
the  depths  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  And  yet  it  is 
evident  of  the  one  as  of  the  other  gospel,  that  its  cen- 
tral idea  had  not  reached  its  own  full  significance,  as 
a  guaranty  for  the  preservation  and  perfection  of 
all  spiritual  forces,  even  in  the  mind  of  its  greatest 
teacher. 

But  we  must  not  overlook  the  fact,  that  this  whole 
poem  is  intent  on  pointing  out  the  ways  in  which  the 
dark,  bewildering,  bestializing  gunas,  or  organic  qual- 
ities, might  be  "  burned  away  in  the  fires  of  worship." 
It  implies  a  certain  inherent  and  absolute  power  in 
these  disciplines  and  endeavors,  to  accomplish  their 
purpose.  They  involve  a  higher  freedom,  which 
contravenes  the  apparent  fatalities  of  evil. 

1  Bluig.  G-,  ch.  xvi. 


428  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

And  for  all  aspirations  alike  there  was  the  One  Life 
The  path  tnat  animated  all  lives,  an  unfailing  promise, 
open  to  ail.  justification,  and  resource. 

"  Rest  assured,  O  son  of  Kunti  !  that  they  who  worship  me, 
shall  never  die.     I  am  the  pledge  of  their  bliss."  ' 

"  Forsake  all  other  reliance,  and  fly  to  me  alone.  I  will  deliver 
thee  from  all  thy  transgressions." 2 

"  Even  if  one  whose  ways  have  been  ever  so  bad  worship  me 
alone,  with  devotion,  he  shall  be  honored  as  a  just  man ;  for  he  has 
judged  aright.  He  soon  becometh  of  a  virtuous  spirit,  and  entereth 
eternal  rest."  3 

"  He  my  servant  is  dear  to  me,  who  is  free  from  enmity,  the 
friend  of  all  nature,  merciful,  exempt  from  pride  and  selfishness,  the 
same  in  pain  and  pleasure,  patient  of  wrongs,  contented,  of  subdued 
passions  and  firm  resolves,  and  whose  mind  is  fixed  on  me  alone. 

"  He  also  is  worthy  of  my  love  who  neither  rejoices  nor  finds 
fault ;  neither  laments  nor  covets ;  and,  being  my  servant,  has 
forsaken  both  good  and  evil  fortune. 

"  He  is  my  beloved  who  is  the  same  in  friendship  and  hatred,  in 
honor  and  dishonor,  unsolicitous  about  the  event  of  things  ;  to 
whom  praise  and  blame  are  as  one  ;  who  is  of  little  speech,  and 
pleased  with  whatever  cometh  to  pass  ;  who  owneth  no  particular 
home,  and  who  is  of  steadfast  mind. 

"  They  who  seek  this  amrita  [immortal  food]  of  religion,  even  as 
I  have  said,  and  serve  me  faithfully,  are  dearest  of  all." 4 

Here  the  independent  witness-soul  of  the  Sankhya 
Concen-  is  combined  with  a  Vedantic  reverence  for  the 
trationof     Qne  Universal  Life,  and  a  Buddhistic  recogni- 

virtues  in  ^ 

worship,  tion  of  action  and  social  duties.  The  meaning 
of  this  blending  of  stoical  indifference,  pious  ardor, 
and  human  love,  can  only  lie  in  the  effort  to  consecrate 
the  whole  of  life,  to  fuse  every  element  of  the  human 
ideal  in  the  one  purpose  of  worship,  as  substantial 
unity  with  the  Highest,  as  all-sufficing  joy. 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  lx.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  xviii. 

a  Ibid  ,  ch.  ix.  4  Ibid.,  ch.  xii.  (Wilkins). 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  429 

"  They  who  worship  me  dwell  in  me,  and  I  in  them." ' 

"  By  him  who  constantly  seeks  me,  without  wandering  of  mind, 
I  am  easily  found." 2 

"  Thinking  on  me,  absorbed  in  me,  teaching  each  other,  and 
constantly  telling  of  me,  the  wise  are  blessed.  To  such  as  seek 
me  with  constant  love,  I  give  the  power  to  come  to  me.  Through 
my  compassion,  while  remaining  in  my  own  essence,  I  yet  turn  their 
darkness  into  light."3 

"  Most  dear  am  I  to  the  spiritually  wise,  and  he  is  dear  to  me. 
The  distressed,  the  seeker  for  light,  the  desirer  of  good,  the  wise, 
are  all  exalted  ;  but  the  wise,  whose  devout  spirit  rests  on  me,  I 
hold  even  as  myself."4 

"  Though  thou  wert  the  greatest  of  offenders,  thou  shalt  cross 
the  gulf  of  sin  in  this  bark  of  spiritual  wisdom.  He  who  hath 
faith  shall  find  this  ;  and,  having  found  it,  shall  speedily  attain  rest 
for  his  soul.  No  bonds  of  action  hold  the  mind  which  hath  cut 
asunder  the  bonds  of  doubt.  Son  of  Bharata,  sever  thy  doubt  in 
worship,  and  arise  !  " 5 

And,  on  the  other  side,  the  inevitableness  of  moral 
penalty  is  as  positively  asserted.  It  rests  not  MoraI  pen. 
on  any  arbitrary  decree,  but  on  the  essential alties- 
qualities  of  conduct.  It  is  associated  indeed  in  certain 
aspects  with  the  notion  that  the  castes  originated  in 
these  moral  qualities,  and  their  due  subordinations ; 6 
for  the  Bhagavadgita.  does  not  attain  the  grand  dem- 
ocracy of  Buddhism.  But  the  inherence  of  moral 
consequence  according  to  purely  moral  quality  is 
nevertheless  strictly  defined  :  — 

"  The  pleasure  that  springs  from  serenity  of  mind  is  first  like 
poison,  and  afterwards  like  the  amrita  of  immortals  ;  but  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  senses  begin  like  amrita,  and  end  as  poisons  ;  and  the 
pleasure  that  is  from  sleepy  sloth  is  the  utter  bewilderment  of  the 
soul." 6 

According  to  the  quality  that  has  ripened  into  pre- 
dominance is  the  form  the  individual  spirit  assumes ; 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  ix.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  viii.  3  Ibid.,  ch.  x. 

4  Ibid.,  ch.  vii.  6  Ibid.,  ch.  iv.  °  Ibid.,  ch  xviii. 


430  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

gravitating  at  death  to  the  "imperishable  place,"  or 
downwards,  through  lower  forms  of  life,  even  to  the 
"wombs  of  the  senseless,"  or  inorganic  matter,  if  the 
deathly  blight  of  indifference  shall  come  to  that  at 
last.1  "Threefold  the  gate  of  this  hell,  —  avarice, 
anger,  and  lust."3  Thus  the  bad  are  consigned,  not 
to  endless  misery  by  one  dread  sentence,  but  to  pro- 
bations manifold;  and,  if  hopelessly  sunk,  reaching 
at  last  a  quasi  annihilation,  by  laws  of  affinity  alone ; 
not  to  be  preyed  on  by  the  worm  that  dieth  not  and 
the  fire  that  is  not  quenched  ;  but,  more  mercifully  (if 
that  word  be  applicable  at  all),  to  become  the  clod  or 
the  stone,  which  testify  that  the  capability  to  sin  and 
to  suffer  are  alike  no  more.  So  that  hope  ceases  only 
with  consciousness  itself;  for  transmigration  is  a  re- 
volving wheel,  and  with  every  fresh  birth  comes  fresh 
gift  of  opportunity  for  such  intelligence  as  may  still 
survive. 

"  All  worlds  up  to  that  of  Brahma  are  subject  to 
,  ["the  law  ofl   return."      But  there  is  a  state 

The  blessed    L  _  J 

life  beyond   from  which  they  who  enter  it  do  not  need,  as 
they  cannot  desire,  to  return. 

"  There  is  an  invisible,  eternal  existence,  beyond  this  visible, 
which  does  not  perish  when  all  things  else  perish,  even  when  the 
great  days  of  Brahma's  creative  life  pass  round  into  night,  and  all 
that  exists  in  form  returns  unto  God  whence  it  came.  They  who 
obtain  this  never  return."  3 

"  They  proceed  unbewildered  to  that  imperishable  place,  which 
is  neither  illumined  by  the  sun  nor  moon  ;  to  that  primeval  Spirit 
whence  the  stream  of  life  for  ever  flows."  4 

"  Whoso  beholds  me  in  all  things  and  all  in  me,  I  do  not  vanish 
from  him,  nor  does  he  vanish  from  me  ;  for  in  me  he  lives." 5 

"  Bright  as  the  sun  beyond  darkness  is  He  to  the  soul  that 
remembers  Him  in  meditation,  at  the  hour  of  death,  with  thought 

1  BJiag.  G-,  ch.  xiv.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  xvi.  3  Ibid.,  ch.  viii. 

4  Ibid.,  ch.  xv.  B  Ibid.,  ch.  vi. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  43 I 

fixed  between  the  brows,  —  Him  the  most  ancient  of  the  wise,  the 
primal  ruler,  the  minutest  atom,  the  sustainer  of  all,  —  in  the  hour 
when  each  finds  that  same  nature  on  which  he  meditates,  and  to 
which  he  is  conformed."  ' 

"  They  who  put  their  trust  in  me,  and  seek  deliverance  from  decay 
and  death,  know  Brahma,  and  the  highest  spirit  (Adhyatma),  and 
every  action  (karma).  They  who  know  me  in  my  being,  my  person, 
and  my  manifested  life,  in  the  hour  of  death  know  me  indeed."  2 

Who  is  this  that  is  so  known  ? 

"  The  Soul  in  all  beings,  the  best  in  each,  and  the  inmost  nature  of 
all ;  their  beginning,  middle,  end  ;  the  all-watching  preserver,  father 
and  mother  of  the  universe,  supporter,  witness,  habitation,  refuge, 
friend  ;  the  knowledge  of  the  wise,  the  silence  of  mystery,  the 
splendor  of  light ;  and  death  and  birth,  and  all  faculties  and 
powers  ;  the  holiest  hymn,  the  spring  among  seasons,  the  seed 
and  the  sum  of  all  that  is."  3 

And  whoso  by  inward  worship  of  God  overcomes 
the  blind  qualities  and  dispositions,  by  devotion  shall 
enter  at  once  into  His  being.4 

These  conceptions  of  a  future  life  seem  to  hover 
between  absorption  into  deity  and  revolving  cy-  Personai 
cles  of  ever-renewed  births.  Yet,  through  all  imm°«aiity- 
this  indistinctness,  a  certain  sense  of  permanence  must 
have  been  felt  by  those  whose  minds  dwelt  so  con- 
stantly on  the  thought  of  somewhat  eternal  in  the  very 
consciousness  of  spiritual  being.  We  have  already 
seen  that  the  mystical  Hindu  mind  did  not  demand  so 
distinct  an  assurance  of  continued  personal  conscious- 
ness after  death  as  does  the  intense  individualism 
of  modern  thought.  Such  positiveness  of  prediction 
would  have  been  associated  with  limitations  rather  than 
with  freedom  :  always  the  longing  of  mystical  faith 
has  been  to  lose  limit  in  pure  self-surrender,  and  find 
freedom  in  absolute  present  trust. 

1  Bliag.  G.,  ch.  viii,  2  Ibid.,  ch.  vii. 

3  Ibid.,  ch.  ix.  x.  xi.  *  Ibid.,  ch.  xiv.  xviii. 


432  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Yet  the  Bhagavadgita.  recognizes  the  desire  of  con- 
tinued being,  as  indeed  it  does  not  fail  of  recognizing 
almost  every  genuine  aspiration.  And  when  Krishna 
would  allay  the  compassionate  scruples  of  Arjuna 
against  destroying  human  life,  he  points  to  the  im- 
perishable personality  that  resides  in  every  soul.  Its 
description  fully  corresponds  with  what  we  mean  by 
that  term.  One  with  infinite  soul,  expanded  to  share 
the  universal  life,  yet  in  a  real  sense  distinct  in  itself, 
as  being  that  in  each  soul  which  makes  it  real  and 
eternal,  it  comes  home  to  our  experience  as  our  own 
deepest  sense  of  immortality,  which  transcends  the 
thought  of  beginning  as  of  end. 

"  As  the  soul  in  this  body  undergoes  the  changes  of  infancy, 
youth,  and  age,  so  it  obtains  a  new  body  hereafter. 

"  Know  that  these  finite  bodies  have  belonged  to  an  eternal, 
inexhaustible,  indestructible  spirit.  He  who  believes  that  this  spirit 
can  kill,  and  he  who  believes  it  can  be  killed,  both  are  wrong. 
Unborn,  changeless,  eternal,  it  is  not  slain  when  the  body  is  slain. 

"  As  a  man  abandons  worn-out  clothes  and  takes  other  new  ones, 
so  does  the  soul  quit  worn-out  bodies  and  enter  others.  Weapons 
cannot  cleave,  nor  fire  burn  it.  It  is  constant,  immovable  ;  yet  it 
can  pass  through  all  things. 

"  If  thou  hadst  thought  it  born  with  the  body,  to  die  with  the 
body,  even  then  thou  shouldst  not  grieve  for  the  inevitable  ;  since 
what  is  born  must  die,  and  what  is  dead  must  live  again.  All 
things  are  first  unseen,  then  seen,  then  at  last  unseen  again.  Why 
then  be  troubled  about  these  things  ? 

"  Some  hold  the  soul  as  a  wonder,  while  some  speak  and  others 
hear  of  it  with  astonishment ;  but  no  one  knoweth  it,  though  he 
may  have  heard  it  described.  The  soul,  in  its  mortal  frame,  is  invul- 
nerable. 

"  Grieve  not  then  for  any  creatures,  and  abandon  not  thy  duty. 
For  a  noble  man  that  infamy  were  worse  than  death."  ' 

"  It  is  good  to  die  doing  thy  own  work  :  doing  another's  brings 
danger." 2 

1  Bliag.  G.,  ch.  ii.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  iii. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  433 

The  sense  of  immortality  is  here  associated  with 
the  idea  of  duty,  conceived  indeed  after  a  Hindu 
fashion.  Wherever  such  connection  is  recognized  as 
essential,  there,  under  whatever  special  form  duty  may 
be  presented,  we  may  be  sure  that  personality  is  in- 
volved in  the  idea  of  eternal  life. 

This  "  invulnerable  soul "  is  in  every  one  of  the 
living  beings  before  Arjuna  on  the  battle-  field  j^  d&stinies 
of  Kuru.  "An  imaginary  thing  can  have  no  divbe- 
existence,  nor  can  that  which  is  real  be  other  than  a 
stranger  to  nonentity."  l  Is  not  this  an  implication 
of  full  faith  in  personal  destinies?  What  limitation 
is  possible  to  the  sweep  of  this  invulnerability  of  life 
through  all  special  lives?  What  is  it  but  the  living 
path  and  the  living  goal,  at  once,  for  them  all?  It  is 
a  protest  against  the  fate  elsewhere  in  the  Bhagavad- 
gita  assigned  to  those  who  are  fallen  lowest  in  delusion 
and  vice.  The  "wombs  of  the  senseless"  disappear 
before  it.  How  can  the  soul  die  down  into  a  clod,  if 
soul  is  invulnerable?  By  this  rescue  of  the  substance, 
all  that  waste  is  made  impossible.  The  higher  "  con- 
servation of  force,"  which  resides  in  intelligence  itself, 
forbids  it.  The  "wombs  of  the  senseless,"  like  the 
"everlasting  woes"  of  Christian  theology,  are,  in 
fact,  but  mythological  and  dramatic  fictions,  in  which 
the  fears  and  hates  arising  from  certain  stages  of 
moral  development  invest  the  idea  of  spiritual  destiny. 
Intuitions  of  the  eternal  validity  of  that  which  is  in- 
most substance  and  proper  selfhood  in  every  one,  flash 
out  by  the  side  of  these  mythologic  fancies,  and  reach 
beyond  them,  discerning  the  real  purport  of  existence. 
This  inmost  personal  life,  rooted  in  essential  life,  con- 
tains all  guaranties  of  good  :  whatever  else  dies  out  or 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  ii. 

2S 


434  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

revolves  through  phases  of  matter,  coming  up  again 
in  vapor  or  tree,  that  which  is  called  "soul"  in  each, 
the  intellectual  and  moral  quality,  the  sphere  of  aspi- 
ration and  relation  to  the  infinite,  however  it  may 
change  and  develop,  must  escape  such  fate,  —  must 
abide,  according  to  this  philosophy,  in  the  imperish- 
able place  of  soul  itself.  Honor  to  pantheism  for 
affirming  the  oneness  of  spiritual  substance,  for  the 
sweep  of  its  great  circle  that  leaves  no  life  homeless 
and  wandering  outside  God. 

The  recognition  of  an  inmost  personality,  lifted  in 
pure  independence  of  all  the  change  and  loss 

Correspond-  r  x  ° 

encewith  involved  in  actions  and  their  fruits,  is  as  posi- 
t  e  san  ya.  ^^  -n  ^e  Bhagava(jgita.  as  in  Kapila's  dis- 
tinction between  Prakriti  and  Purusha.  In  fact,  this 
distinction,  with  the  whole  Sankhya  system,1  is  here 
fully  set  forth ;  though  as  but  a  single  side  of  an 
eclectic  philosophy,  and  combined  —  Kapila  would 
hardly  say,  reconciled  —  with  that  oneness  of  spiritual 
being  to  which  he  objected  as  opposed  to  individual 
claims. 

"He  who  beholdeth  all  his  actions  performed  by  Prakriti,  at  the 
same  time  perceives  that  his  atma  [self]  is  inactive  in  them.  The  su- 
preme soul,  even  when  it  is  in  the  body,  neither  acts  nor  is  it  affected, 
because  its  nature  is  eternal,  and  free  of  qualities.  As  the  all-pene- 
trating ether,  from  the  minuteness  of  its  parts,  passeth  everywhere 
unaffected,  so  this  spirit  in  the  body.  As  one  sun  illumines  the 
whole  world,  so  does  the  one  spirit  illumine  the  whole  of  matter, 
O  Bharata  !  They  who  thus  perceive  the  body  and  the  soul  as  dis- 
tinct, and  that  there  is  release,  go  to  the  Supreme."  2 

This  effort  to  combine  the  Sankhya  with  the  Ve- 
Universaiity  danta  is  but  one  element  of  the  vast  synthesis 
of  theGita.  0f  faith  attempted  in  the  "  Divine  Lay"  which 

1  The  reader  will  recall  the  explanation  of  this  distinction,  as  suggested  in  the  chapter 
on  the  SSnkhya  in  the  present  volume,  p.  388. 

2  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  xiii. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  435 

we  are  now  studying.  It  has  been  described l  as 
evading  all  great  questions  which  divide  the  schools 
of  belief,  as  hovering  between  faith  and  works, 
reason  and  devotion,  the  worship  of  the  invisible 
and  the  worship  of  the  visible  God.1  It  is  certain 
that  the  reconciliation  of  opposite  tendencies  is  by  no 
means  clear  or  satisfactory.  It  is  syncretism  rather 
than  fusion.  It  is  intellectual  recognition,  rather  than 
final  system.  But  the  breadth  of  this  recognition  is 
what  deserves  our  admiration,  the  large  justice  done 
to  every  existing  element  of  Hindu  thought.  Like  its 
own  Brahma,  the  Bhagavadgita  is  the  best  of  every 
form,  revealing  its  highest  aspect,  its  spiritual  pur- 
port. Faith  is  good,  and  works  are  good ;  but  the 
goodness  of  each  is  in  the  subordination  of  one  to  the 
other.  Absorption  and  transmigration  are  both  real ; 
but  their  meaning  for  the  desire  of  immortality  is  in 
their  respective  meanings  as  the  true  end  of  life  and 
the  consequence  of  conduct.  Not  less  real  the  worth 
of  the  Veda  for  the  greater  worth  of  ntrvcda,  the 
divine  certainty  that  lies  beyond  it.  Sacrifices  are 
good,  yet  only  as  the  step  to  a  higher  service  of  God. 
The  Sankhya  witness-soul  is  exalted  ;  not  less  so  the 
soul  performing  these  duties  that  belong  to  its  path  in 
life.  The  gunas,  or  qualities  of  blind  nature,  have 
their  tremendous  moral  issues ;  not  less  true  are  the 
all-dissolving  Unity  of  Brahma,  and  the  illusion  of  this 
universe  that  comes  and  goes,  these  worlds  of  life 
that  are  "subject  to  return."  The  eternal  Substance 
abides,  beyond  all  forms  of  existence,  inconceivable, 
unknown.  Yet  every  term  by  which  the  inmost  per- 
sonality of  man  is  expressed  is  carried  up  into  this 
divine  substance,  making  it  a  fulness  of  life.     It  is 

1  Wilson,  Essay  on  Bliagav.  Gita  (Sanskr.  Lit.,  III.  144). 


436  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Purusha,  personal  soul.  It  is  Purushottdma,  Ultimate 
Personality.  It  is  Adhydtma,  Over-Soul,  or  Divine 
Self.  It  is  even  Mahesvara,  the  Great  Lord.  It  is 
the  Avatara,  the  perpetual  providence,  ever  manifest 
in  visible  form  to  save  the  world. 

This  boundless  hospitality  to  existing  beliefs  indi- 
cates at  least  the  force  with  which  the  religious  senti- 
ment was  embodied  in  them  all  at  the  time  when  the 
Bhagavadgita  was  written.  One  element  betrays  the 
Brahmanical  source  from  which  it  flowed,  the  main- 
tenance, however  modified,  of  caste.  Brahmanism  is 
here  seen,  surrounded  by  rationalizing  independent 
tendencies,  seeking  to  accommodate  itself  to  their 
demands,  while  maintaining  the  unity  of  religious 
development  as  a  whole.  Like  the  somewhat  analo- 
gous production  of  the  Christian  Church,  the  Johannic 
Gospel,  it  is  the  work  of  the  highest  spiritual  genius, 
the  most  deliberate  and  careful  constructive  skill, 
the  most  earnest  desire  of  religious  unity,  which  the 
tendencies  it  represented  had  at  their  command ;  and 
a  spirit  is  moving  through  its  speculative  deeps,  that 
could  not  be  bound  within  the  limits  of  any  creed,  — 
the  spirit  of  Universal  Religion. 

We  cannot  wonder  that  in  a  time  of  contending  sects, 
The  maker  and  amidst  the  distinctions  of  caste,  the  disclo- 
of  the  Lay.  sure  0f  this  "sublime  mystery  "  to  the  reviler, 
the  indifferent,  the  unspiritual,  should  be  forbidden.1 
How  indeed,  leaving  caste  out  of  the  question,  could  it 
be  made  known  to  such  ?  No  deep  religious  faith  fails 
wholly  of  that  wisdom  which  knows  where  not  to  cast 
its  pearls.  As  the  Hebrew  reformer  clothed  his  doc- 
trine in  parables,  for  those  who  hearing  did  not  hear, 
and  as  the  Greek  philosopher  veiled  his  in  symbols,  so 

1  Bhag.  G-,  ch.  xviii. 


THE    BHAGAVAD-GITA.  437 

the  Hindu  mystic  admonished  his  disciples  that  prepa- 
ration was  needed  for  receiving  what  only  the  eye  of 
thoughtful  attention  could  even  behold.  And  was  not 
this  light  of  pure  thought  indeed  shining  in  compara- 
tive darkness  ?  Was  it  not  on  the  heights  of  con- 
templation, in  a  region  which  the  disciplined  intellect 
alone  could  make  a  home  ?  Yet  we  detect  also  behind 
these  ethical  and  spiritual  considerations  the  strict  re- 
quirements of  caste.  Not  here  the  broad  humanity  of 
Buddha,  whose  word  was  a  gospel  rather  than  a  phi- 
losophy, and  probably  uttered  with  less  of  esoteric 
mystery  or  exclusiveness  than  that  of  any  other  teacher 
of  the  ancient  world.  The  claims  of  the  philanthropist 
differ  from  the  claims  of  the  seer. 

Shall  we  not  say  with  the  latest  English  translator 
of  this  wonderful  song,  sung  in  the  far  East  two 
thousand  years  ago,  that  "  it  is  sufficient  praise  for  the 
mystical  old  Brahman  to  have  inferred,  amidst  dark- 
ness and  ignorance,  the  vast  powers  of  mind  and  will, 
and  to  have  claimed  for  the  soul  the  noble  capacity 
of  making  the  body  and  even  external  matter  its 
slave  ?  " 


IV. 

PIETY    AND    MORALITY    OF    PANTHEISM. 


PIETY    AND    MORALITY    OF    PANTHEISM. 


TF  the  Bhagavadgita.  is  pantheistic,  it  is  none  the  less 
*-  theistic  also.  While  these  two  terms  inThedemand 
their  extreme  meaning  represent  widely  differ- ofthea«e- 
ent  conceptions,  here  is  a  higher  unity  which  seeks  to 
include  what  is  best  in  both.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  result  of  this  effort,  its  comprehensiveness 
deserves  special  notice,  in  view  of  the  demand  of  our 
civilization  for  a  breadth  and  freedom  which  can  ap- 
preciate every  real  element  of  human  belief.  In  this 
spirit  of  the  age,  Goethe  wrote  to  Jacobi  that  he  could 
not  be  content  with  one  way  of  thinking  ;  that  as  artist 
and  poet  he  was  a  polytheist,  while  as  student  of 
nature  he  was  a  pantheist. 

All  phases  of  religion  appear  alike  imperfect,  if 
defined  as  mutually  exclusive  systems.  But  their 
real  affinities  are  coming  to  be  comprehended  in  the 
unity  of  personal  experience.  We  are  learning  to 
recognize  theism,  polytheism,  and  pantheism  as  legiti- 
mate parts  of  ourselves,  to  resume  them  under  as- 
pects which  explain  their  power  over  races  and  times 
other  than  our  own,  and  so  to  relieve  the  steps  of 
human  endeavor  from  disparagement  by  exclusive 
creeds. 


442  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

There    are    phases    of   skepticism    and    phases    of 
science  which  seem  to  turn  from  religion  as 

Justice  to  . 

pantheism  well  as  intuition  with  sweeping  denial.  There 
needed.  are  p]iases  0f  SUperstition  apparently  blind  to 
all  rights  of  skepticism  and  science.  But  both  science 
and  religion  in  our  day  are  to  receive  a  republican 
breadth  of  meaning.  They  will  not  only  guard  the 
right  of  every  faculty  and  every  aspiration  to  plead 
its  own  cause,  but  respect  the  witness  it  may  be  able 
to  bring  in»  its  own  behalf  from  the  confidence  of 
mankind. 

To  how  purely  negative  a  criticism  has  pantheism 
been  subjected  !  Yet  there  must  be  truth  in  a  form 
of  belief  which  has  satisfied  enduring  civilizations, 
and  which  has  reappeared  in  philosophy  and  ethics 
wherever  these  have  reached  a  high  development, 
without  regard  to  the  lines  which  separate  recognized 
religions  or  even  races.  It  has  usually  been  through 
some  form  of  spiritual  pantheism  that  these  distinctive 
religions  have  escaped  their  limitations,  and  risen  into 
a  universality  unknown  either  to  their  founders  or 
to  the  ordinary  current  of  their  history.  We  may 
instance  the  Suflsm  of  the  Mohammedans,  the  Neo- 
Platonism  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Mysticism  that 
preceded  the  Reformation  in  Germany  and  Italy,  and 
showed  a  far  larger  and  profounder  spirit  than  that 
movement.  Modern  philosophy  has  received  its 
strongest  impulse  from  a  similar  tendency  in  German 
thought.  And  the  unities  of  political,  intellectual,  and 
religious  life,  at  the  present  time,  make  the  relation 
of  pantheism  to  the  coming  age  a  question  of  real 
moment. 

Whatever  inferior  forms  of  experience  may  have 
received  or  assumed  the  name,  it  is  of  great  impor- 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  443 

tance  to  emphasize  that  special  purport  of  pantheism 
which  accounts  for  its  frequent  recurrence  and  its 
noble  fruits.  Our  study  of  the  Hindu  schools  of  re- 
ligious philosophy  should  help  us  to  this  result. 

It  is  commonly  insisted  that  all  pantheistic  systems 
are  ways  of  confounding  the  Creator  with  the  What  is 
creation,  and  sinking  the  soul  in  the  senses.  Pantheism? 
This  form  of  statement  comes  mainly  from  Semitic 
habits  of  thought  inherited  by  Christianity.  Panthe- 
ism could  expect  no  other  reception  from  their  intense 
jealousy  for  the  rights  of  an  external  deity,  by  whom 
the  world  is  made  out  of  nothing,  and  the  human  soul 
autocratically  ruled. 

But,  if  pantheism  were  what  this  fixed  impression 
of  the  Christian  Church  as  a  whole  represents  it,  it 
would  certainly  be  far  from  resembling  the  aspirations 
of  those  Hindu  seers  whom  we  have  been  studying 
in  the  preceding  chapters  of  this  volume.  They,  of 
all  men,  sought  emancipation  from  the  "  wheel  of  the 
senses,"  and  fervently  believed  in  the  possibility  of 
union  with  the  Absolute  and  Eternal. 

In  reality,  pantheism,  whether  as  sentiment  or 
philosophy,  is  not  the  worship  of  a  finite  and  visible 
world.  In  its  nobler  forms  it  is  essentially  of  the 
spirit,  and  rests,  as  its  name  imports,  on  these  princi- 
ples :  that  Being  is,  in  its  substance,  one  ;  that  this 
substantial  unity  is,  and  must  be,  implicated  in  all 
energy,  though  indefinably  and  inconceivably,  —  as 
Life,  all-pervading,  all-containing,  the  constant  ground 
and  ultimate  force  of  all  that  is ;  and  that  the  recog- 
nition of  this  inseparableness  of  the  known  universe 
from  God  is  consistent  with  the  worship  of  God  jls 
infinitely  transcending  it. 

A  theism  of  pure  sentiment,  following  the  Hebrew 


444  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

prophetic  consciousness  of  intimacy  with  God,  }ret,  like 
T.  .     ,     that  earlier  Semitism,  too  monarchical   in  its 

Limits  of 

Christian  theory  to  recognize  how  completely  all  manifes- 
tation must  be  one  with  its  spiritual  substance, 
was  the  religious  inspiration  of  Jesus  and  his  compan- 
ions. Not  less  was  this  the  limit  for  every  form  under 
which  Christianity  could  appear.  Even  the  Gospel  of 
John  —  though  a  later  product,  drawing  largely  from 
Greek  and  Oriental  fountains,  and  imbued  with  mystical 
elements  apparently  unknown  to  the  original  faith  as 
it  was  in  Jesus  —  stopped  short,  on  this  track,  with 
limiting  the  -pure  immanence  of  God  in  the  universe 
to  the  ideally  constructed  person  of  Jesus,  as  the  "Word 
made  flesh."  All  pantheistic  forms  or  tendencies  of 
distinctive  Christianity  have  had  the  same  limitation  ; 
and  this  obscures  the  universal  element,  which  never- 
theless underlay  and  in  fact  prompted  them. 

The  ideal  demand  of  modern  life  is  for  fuller  recog- 

„  ,  nition  than  was  ever  before  possible,  that  spirit- 

Modem  r  _  r 

ideal  of  ual  being  is  of  one  substance.  All  religions 
measurably  express  this  truth,  and  their  aspira- 
tions after  universality  imply  it.  But  their  distinctive 
tendencies  have  interfered  more  or  less  harmfully  with 
its  free  development  and  just  emphasis.  With  the 
knowledge  of  universal  laws  there  enters  a  more 
genial  and  inclusive  spirit. 

Philosophy  now  aims  at  complete  expression  of  the 
essential  unity  of  subject  with  object,  in  what  Aristotle 
called  "thought  thinking  itself;"  thus  reaching  the 
ultimate  conception  of  One  Spiritual  Substance  em- 
bracing all  being  within  the  scope  of  its  self-affirma- 
tion.1    The  Imagination  of  our  time  divines,  beyond 

1  This  is  involved  even  in  the  "  relativity  of  all  knowledge,"  which  might  seem  to 
make  it  void ;  since  the  conception  of  this  relativity  implies  recognition  of  its  opposite,  the 
non-relative  or  absolute,  as  the  test  of  its  own  reality  even  as  a  conception. 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  445 

this  metaphysical  conception,  that  the  living  universe 
is  the  play  of  deity,  through  all  forms  and  forces,  all 
dream  and  faith  and  action,  all  names,  all  symbols, 
all  religions.  Its  Piety  and  its  Humanity  must  be 
more  than  a  mere  recognition  of  what  is  eternally 
good  and  true,  as  an  object  of  thought :  they  aim  at 
the  expression  of  this,  as  far  as  possible,  in  forms  of 
which  it  shall  be  at  once  the  productive  cause  and  the 
inseparable  life.  Its  Sciences  must  recognize  that 
what  lies  beyond  their  tests  and  explanations  is  really 
the  one  master  force  involved  in  every  step  of  evolu- 
tion from  lowest  to  highest  forms,  the  substance  of 
these  force-factors  out  of  which  all  constructions  flow. 
Its  God  must  be  no  mere  Creator  of  a  distinct  uni- 
verse, in  the  sense  of  maker,  constructor,  provider ; 
but  far  more,  even  the  inmost  Essence  and  Principle 
of  all.  The  age,  in  fine,  is  resuming,  in  the  fulness 
of  its  experience,  the  ideal  meaning  of  all  spiritual 
motives  profound  enough  to  have  acquired  distinctive 
names,  and  to  have  entered  into  the  classification  of 
religious  systems. 

I  am  not  then  forgetting  the  larger  light  of  science 
and  practical  relation  in  the  civilization  of  the  West, 
when  I  bring  the  "  Hindu  dreamers  "  to  help  towards 
a  better  understanding  of  the  needs  of  our  time.  It  is 
these  very  forms  of  intellectual  maturity  that  impel  us 
to  seek  fresh  meaning  in  all  ancient  divinations  of  the 
Unity  of  Being. 

The  mystery  which  we  are  to  ourselves,  and  find  in 
all  things  around  us,  not  only  transcends  our  The mystery 
theological  terms,  but  effaces  all  scientific  land- of  beins- 
marks  and  distinctions.     It  is  by  thought  we  know  all 
that  we  call  God,   the  world,  ourselves ;   and  in  all 


44-6  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

directions  alike  is  thought  incomprehensible  to  the 
thinker.  Facts,  phenomena,  the  operation  of  forces, 
we  claim  to  understand  simply  because  we  employ  them 
for  our  purposes,  select  them  to  meet  definite  demands, 
combine  them  in  positive  constructions.  But  of  force 
we  only  know  that  it  acts  in  certain  ways,  not  how  it 
can  act  thus,  nor  how  act  at  all.  And  of  the  fleeting 
play  of  phenomena,  what  can  we  say  but  that  the  con- 
nection between  mind  and  the  physical  organs  through 
which  they  are  perceived  —  nay,  between  mind  and 
its  own  activity  —  is  a  mystery  penetrable  by  no  faculty 
that  we  possess.  With  a  change  in  our  mode  of  exist- 
ence, the  familiar  universe  would  roll  up  as  a  scroll ; 
though  it  were  only  to  reappear  in  such  new,  unim- 
agined  form  as  may  accord  with  new  desires  or  needs, 
—  so  slight  the  hold  of  either  our  volition  or  our  com- 
prehension on  the  relations  of  our  being.  Yet  we 
inevitably  trust  the  reports  of  consciousness  concern- 
ing its  own  objects.  And  how  should  this  unison  be 
possible,  and  this  confidence  and  calm  abide  in  the 
depths  of  the  reason,  but  for  an  inmost  identity  of  es- 
sence, including  within  itself  alike  the  truster  and 
what  he  trusts  f 

This  presence  of  the  unfathomable,  in  which  all  ex- 
perience is  involved,  cannot  be  set  aside  on  the  ground 
that  it  is  always  unknown,  and  that  a  purely  unknown 
factor  may  be  eliminated  from  the  problem.  It  abides 
everywhere  :  it  is  that  which  we  do  know  most  surely, 
even  if  we  know  nothing  else,  unless  knowing  means 
comprehending,  in  which  case  we  should  do  well  to 
drop  the  word  altogether. 

Nor  can  a  universal  element  be  eliminated  and  left 
out  of  the  problem, — like  a  constant  factor  in  arith- 
metic,—  on  the  ground  that  it  is  constant  and  every- 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  447 

where  of  equal  force.1  It  is  dynamic,  not  arithmetical. 
It  enters  into  the  substance  of  each  experience,  with 
special  influences  in  each.  Its  presence  affects  the 
spirit  and  attitude  of  inquiry,  shapes  the  definitions, 
and  saves  from  absorption  in  the  finite  side  of  experi- 
ence. "  They  who  prize  experience  exclusively,"  said 
Goethe,  "forget  that  experience  is  but  the  half  of  ex- 
perience." 

Our  victorious  science  fails  to  sound  one  fathom's 
depth    on    any    side,    since    it   does    not   ex- 

r_  .  .  Thepanthe- 

plain  the  parentage  of  mind.  For  mind  was  istic  side  of 
in  truth  before  all  science,  and  remains  forthougt* 
ever  the  seer,  judge,  interpreter,  even  father,  of  all  its 
systems,  facts,  and  laws.  Our  faculties  are  none  the 
less  truly  above  our  heads  because  we  no  longer  won- 
der, like  children,  at  processes  we  do  not  understand. 
Spite  of  category  and  formula,  of  Kant  and  Hegel, 
we  are  abashed  before  our  own  untraceable  thought. 
The  stars  of  heaven,  the  grass  of  the  field,  the  very 
dust  that  shall  be  man,  foil  our  curiosity  as  much  as 
ever,  and  none  the  less  for  yielding  to  the  lens,  the 
prism,  and  the  polariscope  of  science  ever  new  tri- 
umphs for  our  pride  and  delight.  Not  less  mystical 
is  mind  because  it  will  no  longer  be  suppressed  and 
stultified  by  mysteries  of  faith.  True  as  ever  is  what 
Krishna  says  in  the  old  Eastern  reverie  :  — 

"  Some  regard  the  soul  as  a  miracle,  while  some  speak  of  it,  and 
others  hear  of  it,  with  like  astonishment ;  but  no  one  comprehends 
it,  even  when  he  has  heard  it  described."  2 

What  know  we  of  matter  P  Philosophy  can  define 
it  as  a  form  in  which  spirit  manifests  itself  to  spirit, 
a  reflex  of  thought,  an  expression  or  mode  of  mind ; 

1  This  is  Mr.  Buckle's  mode  of  historical  computation:  "The  moral  factor  is  con- 
stant :  ergo,  it  has  no  influence." 

2  Bliagavadgita,  ch.  ii. 


448  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

and  so  escape  the  dualism  that  would  seem  involved  in 
its  being  an  independent  reality.  The  spiritual  is  its 
substance,  is  what  it  means,  is  what  we  are  conscious 
of,  after  all.  What,  then,  is  spiritual  essence?  We 
cannot  define  it,  we  know  not  how,  only  that  it  acts ; 
still  less  do  we  know  what  it  is.  To  remember,  to 
hope,  to  love  :  these  we  explain  only  by  themselves 
again.  That  they  are  is  itself  the  mystery,  all- 
pervading,  infinite,  —  To  Be. 

Into  such  transcendence  the  whole  of  life  enters, 
and  with  it  all  science,  matter,  force,  and  form.  By 
this  one  fact  of  mystery  alone,  though  we  should  look 
no  further,  the  infinite  of  mind  is  found  inseparable 
from  all  experience.  And  this  "  Unknowable "  is 
known  to  be  not  merely  continuous  with  the  human, 
nor  interpenetrating  it  merely,  as  space  is  per- 
vaded by  light,  —  but  more.  As  a  man's  mind  is  in 
his  thought  and  his  love,  so  is  essential  mind  the 
unfathomable  life  in  which  all  intelligent  spiritual 
forces  move.1 

And  this  truth  has  still  closer  relations  with  our 
in  ethics  ^  moral  and  spiritual  nature.  The  sense  of 
and  faith.  iimit  that  for  ever  besets  the  understanding, 
withholding  from  us  the  meaning  of  the  world  and 
the  purpose  of  existence  in  a  certain  repulsion  as 
towards  aliens  and  strangers,  necessitates  a  path 
upwards  to  the  freedom  of  an  all-embracing  idea,  an 
all-dissolving  unity,  in  which  our  individual  imperfec- 
tions shall,  ideally  at  least,  cease  to  separate  us  from 
the  whole.     This  dualism,  as  between  one  who  seeks 


1  Spencer  {Psychology,  p.  1 10)  regards  snch  ideas  as  anthropomorphic,  and  so  without 
authority.  But  if  the  substance  of  the  universe  is  not  mind,  as  we  are  mind  who  think  it, 
then  the  very  conception  of  existence,  on  which  that  of  substance  depends,  is  also  base- 
less as  resulting  from  our  mentality  alone. 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  449 

and  one  who  shuns,  can  yield  only  to  a  sense  of  in- 
most identity.  The  soul  must  gather  the  world  and 
itself  under  one  conception.  It  must  see  the  whole, 
in  other  words,  in  God.  Only  the  inseparableness  of 
finite  from  infinite  can  assure  our  life  of  an  origin  and 
purport  adequate  to  its  nature.  "  Because  God  is," 
saith  the  soul,  "  therefore  I  am  and  shall  be,  —  in 
God." 

But  to  this  assurance  there  is  no  other  path 
than  that  of  moral  consecration.  The  reconciliation, 
the  freedom,  the  unity,  come  only  with  absorption 
of  the  conscious  self  into  the  truth  of  principles, 
convictions,  ideal  aims ;  with  finding,  in  the  best 
moments,  somewhat  of  thought  or  feeling,  which 
"  having  been  must  ever  be ;  "  with  participation  in 
somewhat  of  divine  nature  and  endless  promise, 
through  an  absolute  love  and  service :  so  that  it 
shall  no  longer  be  the  private  self,  but  soul  as  soul, 
which  affirms  within  us,  and  once  for  all, —  M  I  am." 

"  O  grace  abundant,  by  which  I  presumed 
To  fix  my  sight  upon  the  light  eternal, 
So  that  the  seeing  /  consumed  therein  ! 

I  saw  that  in  its  depth  far  down  is  lying 
Bound  up  in  love  together  in  one  volume 
What  through  the  universe  in  leaves  is  scattered ; 

Substance,  and  accident,  and  their  operations, 
All  interfused  together  in  such  wise 
That  what  I  speak  of  is  one  simple  light?'' 1 

Such  experience  is  limited  to  no  age  nor  race. 
Through  such  paths  as  these,  in  such  form  as  was 
possible  within  his  special  horizon,  as  I  believe,  the 
Hindu  saint  arrived  at  his  pantheistic  faith.  This  is 
the   substance    of  the  process,  with  whatever  errors 

1  Paradiso,  XXIII.  (Longfellow's  transl.). 
29 


450  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

mingled,  by  whatever  superstitions  marred.  Through 
such  experiences  not  the  saints  and  seers  only,  but 
simply  earnest  people,  through  much  imperfection, 
have  in  every  religion  reached  the  certainty  of  infinite 
good,  under  whatever  name,  as  inseparable  from 
their  own  inward  being. 

These  are  truths  not  of  the  reason  only,  however 
its  ethical  they  may  accord  with  its  higher  processes ; 
value.  but  primarily  of  religious  sentiment,  and  espe- 
cially in  its  dealing  with  the  facts  of  moral  and  phys- 
ical evil.  For  the  root  of  all  effective  force  against 
these  facts  as  actual  is  in  holding  the  good  to  be  the 
one  reality  ;  in  finding  fast  anchorage  in  this  ultimate, 
essential  fact  which  they  are  bound  to  subserve ;  in 
being  sure  that  the  whole  process  of  life  is  somehow 
contained  within  the  infinite  rectitude  of  God.  The 
Hindu  dreamer,  seeking  to  abolish  evils  by  thinking 
them  away;  and  the  practical  worker,  in  practical 
races  and  times,  more  effectually  battling  them  down 
by  action,  —  alike  assume  that  the  real  and  essential 
are  to  be  found  only  in  the  good.  Both  seek  to  reach 
true  being  by  denying  the  claim  of  evil  to  be  positive 
and  permanent ;  to  read  the  world  with  clearer  insight 
of  its  meaning ;  to  affirm  for  the  actual  its  ultimate 
significance  in  the  ideal,  in  God. 

We  master  the  despair  with  which  the  prevalence 
of  evils  would  otherwise  overwhelm  us,  by  assuring 
ourselves  that  evil  is  properly  "good  in  the  making," 
a  condition  of  finite  growth.  This  is  but  recognizing 
the  fact  that  our  philosophy  cannot  possibly  be  sound 
and  healthful  so  long  as  it  does  not  explain  the  finite 
by  the  infinite,  and  interpret  the  life  of  man  in  its 
wholeness  as  manifestation  of  God. 

The  best  and  bravest  souls  have  always  treated  evils 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  45 1 

not  as  if  their  depressing  side  were  the  substance  of 
their  meaning,  but  as  involving  issues  of  all-reconcil- 
ing good.  This  mystic  faith,  that  things  seen  but  in 
part  are  seen  in  illusion,  and  that  they  are  seen  but  in 
part  till  they  are  brought  out  into  relations  that  accord 
with  ideal  good,  is  as  practical  as  it  is  speculative. 
Science  itself  can  offer  no  other  interpretation  than 
this  of  the  physical  evil,  which  "final  causes"  and 
"special  interferences"  only  aggravate  by  their  im- 
plication of  a  divine  intention.  Its  help  is  for  the 
sternest  and  bitterest  lot.  It  is  an  instinct  of  cheerful 
hope,  where  it  has  not  yet  become  a  clear  perception 
of  the  reason.  It  inspires  the  will,  where  it  finds  no 
hold  in  the  understanding.  Its  secret  assurance  is 
perhaps  strongest  in  the  simplest  natures  that  are  least 
perplexed  with  casuistry  or  doubt.  It  is  apt  to  find 
clear  and  hopeful  solutions  of  duty,  whether  men  are 
dealing  with  their  own  sense  of  wrong-doing  or  with 
outward  and  social  wrong. 

We  must  act  upon  the  testimony  of  the  practical 
consciousness ;  hold  common  sense  sacred  ;  ignore  no 
facts  that  life  teaches ;  neglect  no  function  of  the 
understanding.  But  there  is  need  of  a  philosophy  in 
which  the  ideal  only  is  seen  as  real ;  of  hours  when 
the  eye  is  opened  with  vision  of  the  divine  alone. 
Alas  for  common  sense  itself,  if  our  ideals  have  taught 
us  no  more  than  our  understandings ;  if  banks  and 
ships  and  railroads  do  not  sometimes  dissolve  as  illu- 
sions in  the  white  light  of  noble  dreams ;  if  even  the 
woes  and  sins  of  the  world,  which  permit  no  rest  to 
the  eyelids  of  faithful  men,  could  never  vanish  before 
their  sight  into  the  infinite  depths  of  Divine  Order ; 
never  melt,  even  for  an  hour  of  happier  inspiration, 
into  the  mystery  of  all-embracing  good  ! 


45: 


RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 


But  is  not  this  pure  Fatalism,  and  destructive  to  the 
Relation  moral  being  ?  To  this  question  we  must  reply 
to  fate.  that,  while  destiny  or  fate  in  the  sense  of  abso- 
lute external  compulsion  would  certainly  be  destructive 
not  only  of  moral  responsibility,  but  of  the  personality 
itself,  yet  religion  or  science  without  fate,  in  another 
sense,  is  radically  unsound.  The  word  properly  means 
"fixed,  settled,  irrevocably  spoken  ;"  that  is,  it  notes  the 
final  truth  and  substance  of  things.  To  make  it  mean 
only  hostile  sovereignty  —  what  is  desperately  bad,  and 
rendered  so  by  a  dead,  mechanical,  motiveless,  yet 
external  power  —  is  to  misapply  it.  Rather  should 
it  signify  what  is  impregnably  certain  ;  and  if  good  is 
so?  — things  being  regarded  in  their  inherent  and  ulti- 
mate meaning,  —  then  good,  not  evil,  is  fate.  Is  not 
truth  itself,  then,  fate:  —  truth,  which  is  but  another 
name  for  the  sanity  and  integrity  of  nature  and  law ; 
truth,  which  is  the  health  and  sweetness  of  universal 
order ;  truth,  which  is  therefore  interchangeable,  as  to 
its  meaning,  with  good?  Why  should  not  the  very 
perfection  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  laws,  whose  be- 
nignity it  is  no  part  of  our  liberty  of  thought  or  will 
to  alter  or  suppress,  to  make  or  to  mar,  stand  to  the 
soul  as  its  fate?  Subject  as  we  surely  are  to  organi- 
zation, heredity,  conditions  innumerable,  shall  we  not 
hold  that  the  ideal  good  also,  which  we  dream  of  beyond 
these  limitations,  is  our  ultimate  destiny?  We  cannot 
separate  perfection  and  fate.  Deity,  whose  sway  is 
not  destiny,  would  not  be  venerable,  nor  even  reliable. 
It  would  be  a  purpose  that  did  not  round  the  universe, 
a  love  that  could  not  preserve  it.  Theism  without 
fate  is  a  kind  of  atheism.  And  a  self-denominated 
"atheism,"  yet  holding  justice  to  be  the  true  necessity, 
or  fate,  is  properly  theism,  though  it  refuse  the  name. 


MORALITY    OF    PANTHEISM.  453 

Sovereign  right  and  good  at  the  centre  of  soul  and 
nature,  what  is  that  but  God? 

So   that  destiny  should   not  be  defined   as  hostile 
sovereignty  or   suppressive    decree.     But    we  Fr 
must  go  further.     It  cannot  be  pure  outward  reconciled 

r  1 1  •  1    •  i       with  fate. 

torce,  compelling  man,  even  to  his  good. 
Even  worshipped  as  the  dearest  ideal,  even  cherished 
as  the  power  of  God  to  set  aside  human  defect  and 
guarantee  the  best,  it  would  still  abolish  liberty,  the 
substance  of  the  soul, — if  it  were  this.  The  impell- 
ing forces  therefore  represent  not  foreign  mastery,  but 
natural  growth.  God  is  the  inmost  life  of  the  human, 
not  the  external  will  that  shapes  it  as  the  potter  moulds 
his  clay.  The  fate  that  man  must  accept  is  but  the 
real  law  of  his  own  nature,  whereby  it  is  in  accord 
with  the  universal  life.  It  is  thus  not  only  consistent 
with  freedom,  but  coincident  with  it.  While  he  resists 
his  own  essential  humanity,  while  he  fails  to  express 
or  to  seek  in  his  individual  purpose  that  harmony  with 
the  universal  order,  his  will  can  in  no  proper  sense  be 
called  free  :  it  is  enslaved  to  illusion  and  bound  to 
failure,  and  can  reach  nothing  he  really  needs  or  can 
intelligently  love.  Liberty  itself  can  be  found  only  in 
knowing  essential  good  to  be  the  moving  force  of  his 
own  spiritual  being.  This  unity  is  the  true  self;  in 
this  is  personality ;  therefore  it  is  spontaneity,  joy, 
health,  success.  The  fate  that  abolishes  individual 
caprice  is  the  seal  of  freedom.  Hence  the  inspiration 
that  comes  in  self-abandonment  to  an  idea  or  a  duty. 
It  identifies  our  fate  with  our  freedom.  All  great 
aspiration  brings  the  sense  of  destiny,  because  it  frees 
from  inward  conflict,  from  the  resistance  of  finite 
caprice  to  infinite  good  ;  and  in  this  deep  natural  alli- 
ance and  harmony  of  forces  the  doubts  and  fears  are 
dissolved. 


454  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Even  in  the  less  enlightened  forms  of  personal 
energy,  we  note  that  the  sense  of  destiny  comes  in, 
wherever  there  is  unity  of  the  motive  powers,  al- 
lowing entire  concentration  of  purpose.  This  is 
the  condition  of  valor,  assurance,  authority.  The 
vivacious  Norse  Sagas  are  full  of  fatalism,  •  and 
every  storming  Viking  believed  that  his  destiny  was 
written  in  his  brain  at  birth.  "  Odin,"  says  the  Heim- 
skringla,  "knew  beforehand  the  predestined  fate  of 
men,  or  their  not  yet  completed  lot."  "No  soul  can 
die  unless  by  permission  of  God,"  says  Mohammed 
in  the  Koran,  for  the  encouragement  of  his  followers. 
"Everyman's  fate  have  we  bound  about  his  neck." 
Better  still,  fate  is  the  refuge  and  strength  of  Greek 
Prometheus  in  that  sublime  martyrdom  which  he  en- 
dures as  the  penalty  of  his  love  for  man.  It  is  free- 
dom and  justice  approaching  in  the  future,  to  dethrone 
the  tyrannical  gods  of  the  past.  And  this  divine 
myth  of  the  identity  of  fate  with  noble  will  is  a  normal 
type  of  all  ethical  and  spiritual  inspiration. 

The  heroes  and  the  saints  are  fatalists,  and  read 
doom  and  triumph  alike  by  one  token :  "  for  this 
cause  came  I  unto  this  hour."  The  Stoic  schools, 
both  Greek  and  Roman,  have  proved -that  spiritual 
pantheism,  as  the  essential  unity  of  the  human  and 
divine,  is  reconcilable  with  the  strongest  conviction  of 
moral  freedom ; l  affirming  in  theory,  and  carrying 
out  into  actual  life,  a  degree  of  personal  independence 
and  self-respect  as  remarkable  as  their  confidence  that 
fate  and  providence  are  one.2  The  pantheistic  fol- 
lowers of  the  Bab,   a  modern   Persian   heretic,  have 


1  See  Zeller's  Stoics,  pp.  170,  205,  227. 

2  Stob&us  Eclog-,  I.  179 ;  Seneca  de  Bene/.,  IV.  7. 


MORALITY    OF   PANTHEISM. 


455 


met  incessant  persecutions  of  the  most  barbarous  kind 
with  astonishing  courage  and  enthusiasm.1 

And  why  should  the  fact  be  otherwise?  Immanent 
deity,  become  intensely  real  for  the  consciousness, 
should  not  only  consecrate  the  whole  life  to  duty,  but 
should  give  the  powers  that  freedom  of  aspiration 
which  a  universe  so  consecrated  cannot  but  guarantee 
to  all  its  own  natural  and  proper  forces.  "It  is  an 
error  to  suppose,"  says  Heine,  "that  pantheism  leads 
to  indifference.  On  the  contrary,  the  sense  of  his 
own  divineness  will  stir  man  to  reveal  the  same,  and 
from  that  moment  really  grand  actions  and  genuine 
heroism  will  enter  and  glorify  this  world."'2 

The  life  and  death  of  the  pantheistic  Fichte  were 
full  of  noble  service,  both  patriotic  and  humane. 
Spinoza  was  the  harbinger  of  free  thought  and  scholar- 
ship, the  Columbus  of  ethics  and  theology  as  well  as 
of  philosophy.  The  mystical  "  Friends  of  God  "  in  the 
Middle  Ages  were  the  fathers  of  modern  philanthropy  : 
their  "Theologia  Germanica,"  Luther  tells  us,  first 
brought  him  inward  light  and  peace.  From  the  spirit- 
ual closet  of  a  pantheistic  dream  issued  the  Reforma- 
tion. And  every  time  the  world  is  about  to  move  a 
fresh  step  forward,  there  is  somewhere  in  seclusion 
a  mystical  brooding  sense  of  all-mastering  and  all- 
absorbing  deity,  that  holds  in  its  bosom  the  germinant 
religious  and  social  revolution,  and  sends  forth  the 
earliest  witnesses  and  purest  martyrs  in  its  cause. 

It  must  not,  then,  be  supposed  that  Hindu  Panthe- 
ism and  Fatalism  were  wholly  irreconcilable  Hindu  Pan- 
with  moral   earnestness,  or   even  enercfv.     I  tihelsma°d 

OJ  the  moral 

cannot  admit,  for  instance,  that  Mr.  Banerjea,  sense. 

1  See  their  history  in  De  Gobineau's  Relig.  de  FAsie  Centrale. 
*  De  FAllentag?ie,  I.  p.  103. 


456  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

a  Hindu  convert  to  Christianity,  has  furnished  con- 
vincing proofs  that  the  Vedanta,  making  the  universe 
and  the  soul  identical  with  God,  destroyed  the  idea  of 
duty.  The  same  was  said  of  Spinozism,  by  Jew  and 
Christian.  Yet  Spinoza  himself,  cast  out  of  the  syna- 
gogue with  curses  as  the  sum  of  all  wickedness,  was, 
in  morality,  piety,  and  spiritual  earnestness,  far  in 
advance  of  all  his  accusers,  then  or  since.  Moral 
purpose  in  the  Hindu  was  apt  to  take  inward,  rather 
than  outward,  directions :  this  was  incident  to  his 
ethnic  and  climatic  conditions.  But  how  large  a 
degree  of  such  purpose  was  involved  in  the  effort  to 
overcome  self  and  the  senses  by  his  method!  It  was 
contemplative  indeed,  not  social.  He  watched  the 
flow  of  change  as  it  swept  through  all  forms,  as  one 
watches  in  reverie  the  waves  of  a  running  stream, 
or  the  drift  of  clouds  across  the  sky ;  and  the  thought 
that  he  was  himself  but  part  of  the  current  made  him 
feel  himself  profoundly  a  child  of  fate.  And  he  was 
fond  of  such  sa}rings  as  these  :  — 

"  Life,  death,  wealth,  wisdom,  works,  are  measured  for  one  while 
on  his  mother's  bosom." 

"  Their  fated  allotments  the  very  gods  must  bear.  As  pieces  of 
drift-wood  meet  in  ocean,  and  remain  together  a  little  time  only  ; 
as  a  traveller  sleeps  under  a  tree,  and  the  next  day  departs,  —  so 
friends  and  possessions  pass :  there  is  no  return."  ' 

"  When  his  time  is  come,  the  bird  who  can  see  his  food  a  long 
way  off  cannot  see  the  snare." 

"  Birds  are  killed  in  the  air ;  fishes  caught  in  the  sea  :  what  help 
in  choice  of  place  ? " 

"  When  I  see  the  sun  and  moon  in  eclipse,  and  the  wise  man  in 
want,  then  I  say,  Fate  is  master."  2 

"  Where  are  the  princes  of  the  earth  with  their  chariots  and 
armies  ?     The  earth  that  saw  them  perish  still  abides." 

1  Ramayaua.  2  Hitopadesa,  I.  44-46. 


MORALITY    OF    PANTHEISM.  457 

"  Who  sees  not  that  this  body  passes  away  every  moment  ? 
Like  a  pot  of  clay  in  the  water,  it  falls  in  pieces." 

"  So  many  dear  ties  as  man  may  form,  so  many  thorns  of  sorrow 
are  planted  in  his  heart." 

"  Foolish  is  he  who  would  lay  up  riches  in  a  world  that  is  like 
a  bubble." 

"  As  waters  flow  away  and  come  not  back,  so  the  days  and  nights 
of  mortal  men." 

"  The  society  of  the  good,  which  brings  us  a  little  joy,  is  bound 
to  the  yoke  of  pain  ;  for  it  ends  in  separation. 

"  And  there  is  no  healing  for  the  heart  that  is  wounded  with  this 
sword." ' 

But  the  inference  shows  that  the  wisdom  to  draw 
help  from  these  necessities  was  not  wanting. 

"  Therefore  be  thou  resolved,  and  think  no  more  of  sorrowing  : 
here  is  the  healing  for  thy  wounds."  2 

"  Every  thing  on  earth  has  its  pleasure  and  its  pain.  Death 
comes  to  all  that  is  born,  and  new  birth  to  all  that  dies.  Grieve 
not  for  what  must  be." 3 

And  what  was  this  intense  feeling  of  the  transient 
but  equally  intense  suggestion  of  the  eternal  ?  Did 
not  the  lower  fate  point  to  a  higher  ?  If  change 
sweeps  over  all,  what  makes  the  changes  but  a 
changeless  law  ? 4  What  makes  a  changeless  law 
but  an  eternal  life  ?  Vicissitudes  pass,  God  is.  And 
we  are,  —  in  God.  So,  with  all  his  moral  energies, 
the  devotee  of  contemplation  strove  to  reach  perma- 
nent peace,  at  the  heart  of  a  restless  world. 

The  old  lawgivers  found  no  lack  of  moral  sanction 
here. 

1  Hitop.,  IV.  67-77  i  Ibid.,  82. 

3  R  a  may  ana  ;  Bhag.  Gita,  &c. 

*  "  Anaxagoras,  Epicurus,  and  Euripides  agree  that 

'  nothing  dies ; 

But  different  changes  give  their  various  forms.'  " 

Plutarch,  Sentini.  of  Nature ■• 


458  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

"  If  one  considers  the  whole  universe  as  existing  in  the  Supreme 
Spirit,  how  can  he  give  his  soul  to  sin  ?  "  ' 

"  He  who  understands  divine  omnipresence  can  no  more  be  led 
captive  by  crime."  2 

A  Upanishad  says  :  — 

"  Such  a  one,  who  beholds  the  soul  in  the  infinite  soul  alone, 
him  sin  does  not  consume :  he  consumes  sin  ;  becomes  free  from 
doubt,  and  is  pure."  3 

The  pantheistic  bias  of  Hindu  thought  does  not 
exclude  a  trustful  and  hopeful  spirit.  Through 
most  Indian  poetry  there  flows  a  delicate  sense 

of  divine  benignity  in  the   natural  processes  of  life. 

The  Hitopadesa,  the  people's  ancient  Book  of  Precepts 

and  Fables,  whose  choice  sentences  are  gathered  out 

of  all  the  Hindu  classics,  says  :  — 

"  Hear  the  secret  of  the  wise.  Be  not  anxious  for  subsistence  : 
it  is  provided  by  the  Maker.  When  the  child  is  born,  the  mother's 
breasts  flow  with  milk.  He  who  hath  clothed  the  birds  with  their 
bright  plumage  will  also  feed  thee." 

"  How  should  riches  bring  thee  joy,  which  yield  pain  in  the 
getting,  and  pain  in  the  passing  away,  and  turn  the  head  of  the 
winner  with  folly  ?  What  trouble  so  great,  in  this  life  of  many 
cares,  as  the  for  ever  unsatisfied  desire  ?  That  only  which  one  no 
longer  seeks  with  anxious  heart  has  he  really  attained." 4 

The  Vedanta  says  :  — 

"  As  birds  repair  to  a  tree  to  dwell  therein,  so  all  this  universe 
to  the  Supreme  One." 5 

"  He,  the  All-wise  Preserver,  dispenses  the  objects  of  our  desire. 
To  know  Him  is  to  be  free :  there  is  no  end  of  misery  but  through 
this  knowledge  of  God.  To  him  whose  trust  is  in  God  reveal 
themselves  the  mysteries."  6 

Says  the  Divine  One  in  the  Gita  :  — 

1  Manu,  XII.  118.  2  Ibid.,  VI.  74;  so  Spinoza. 

8  Brihad,  IV.  iv.  23.  *  From  Miiller's  version,  I.  170-179. 

e  Pras'na,  IV.  7.  •  tfvet&s'avaiara,  VI.  13-23. 


MORALITY   OF   PANTHEISM.  459 

"  I  am  the  Preserver  who  watches  in  all  directions.  Be  not 
alarmed  at  having  seen  me  in  the  terrible  shape  of  all-destroying 
Time.  Hasten  to  look,  free  from  fear,  on  my  human  and  friendly 
form."  ' 

Another  text,  of  frequent  recurrence  in  the  philo- 
sophical and  ethical  books,  makes  mortality  itself 
the  ground  of  spiritual  faith  :  — 

"  From  what  root  springs  man,  when  felled  by  death  ?  Say  not, 
'  like  a  tree,  he  springs  from  seed.'  If  the  tree  be  destroyed  with  its 
root,  it  grows  not  again.  If  then  man  be  cut  down  by  death,  from 
what  root  shall  he  spring  to  life  again  ?  It  is  God,  the  highest  aim 
of  one  who  abideth  in  and  knoweth  Him."  2 

In  the  Ramayana,  Bharata  is  adjured  by  the  sages 
not  to  mourn  too  bitterly  for  his  dead  father :  — 

"  O  wise  Bharata  !  grieve  not  for  the  departed.  He  is  no  longer 
an  object  for  grief,  and  too  many  tears  may  bring  him  down  from 
the  heaven  to  which  he  has  gone."  3 

And  Arjuna,  permitted  to  ascend,  though  living,  to 
the  heaven  of  the  just, 

"  Follows  the  path  unknown  to  mortals,  where  no  golden  sun 
nor  silver  moon  divides  the  time,  but  the  mighty  hosts  of  men 
shine  with  the  splendor  of  their  own  virtue,  in  a  light  which  we 
afar  off  think  to  be  the  tremulous  fires  of  stars. 

"  There  sees  he  the  good  kings,  the  brave  and  faithful  men  who 
were  blessed  with  glorious  deaths,  and  holy  prophets,  and  pure 
women  in  chariots  that  wing  the  heavenly  spaces."  4 

In  the  absence  of  historical  and  biographical  facts, 
we  are  obliged  to  infer  the  ethical  ideal  and  Ethicai 
attainment  which  Hindu  civilization  permitted,  mustrations- 
from  the  prevailing  maxims  and  proverbs  ;  the  wisdom 
that  has  been  circulating  for  ages,  in  sentence  and  in 
song,  among  the  masses  of  this  immense  empire. 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  xi.  2  Brihad,  III.  ix.  28. 

8  Ram&y.,  B.  11.  *  Mahabh.,  III. 


460  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Here,  for  example,  is  manly  diet,  from  the  Hitopa- 
The  Hito-   des'a,  for  the  believer  in  fate  :  — 

padesa. 

"  Twofold  is  the  life  we  live  in  :  fate  and  will  together  run  : 
Two  wheels  bear  the  chariot  onward  :  will  it  move  on  only  one  ?  " 

"  Nay,  but  faint  not,  idly  sighing,  '  destiny  is  mightiest.1 
Sesamum  holds  oil  in  plenty  ;  but  it  yieldeth  none  unprest."  ' 

"  Fortune  comes  of  herself  to  the  lionlike  man  who  acts.  It  is 
the  abject  who  say,  £  All  must  come  from  fate.'  Forget  fate,  and  be 
brave.  If  thou  failest,  having  put  forth  all  thy  force,  the  blame  is 
not  thine. 

"  The  deeds  done  in  a  former  life  are  what  is  called  fate.  There- 
fore let  one  exert  himself  with  unwearied  energy  in  the  present. 

"  As  the  potter  shapes  the  clay  at  his  will,  so  a  man  shapes  his 
own  action. 

"  Though  he  see  his  desired  good  close  at  hand,  fate  will  not 
bestow  it  on  him  :  it  waits  the  manly  deed. 

"  A  work  prospers  through  endeavors,  not  through  vows :  the 
fawn  runs  not  into  the  mouth  of  a  sleeping  lion."  2 

"  Take  good  and  ill  as  they  come ;  for  fortune  turneth  like  a 
wheel. 

"  Frogs  to  the  marsh,  birds  to  the  lake,  so  all  good  to  the  man 
who  strives  for  it :  as  one  who  seeks  him,  so  hastes  it  to  the  hero 
who  dallies  not,  is  virtuous,  grateful,  and  a  faithful  friend."  3 

"  By  his  own  doings  one  rises  or  falls,  as  one  man  digs  a  well 
and  another  throws  up  a  wall." 4 

"  Seek  not  the  wild  ;  sad  heart !    Thy  passions  haunt  it. 
Play  hermit  in  thy  house,  with  will  undaunted. 
A  governed  heart,  thinking  no  thought  but  good, 
Makes  crowded  houses  holy  solitude." 

1  Hitofad.  Introd.,  29,  31.  The  verses  are  from  Arnold's  pleasant  abridgment  of  this 
old  Book  of  Good  Counsels  (Lond.  1861),  and  are  literal  translations.  The  prose  pas- 
sages are  selected  from  Miiller^s  German  version  (1844).  I  have  also  carefully  compared 
with  this  the  French  version  of  Lancereau  (1855)  and  the  English  by  Sir  William  Jones. 
This'  last  is  hardly  trustworthy,  and  Miiller  thinks  it  cannot  have  received  the  author's 
entire  elaboration.  Such  liberties  are  taken  by  the  native  copyists  of  the  Hitopadesa, 
that,  in  MuTler's  opinion,  no  true  edition  is  possible,  and  each  translator  must  select  the 
special  text  he  will  follow.  This  fact  helps  to  explain  the  very  marked  difference  in 
these  versions. 

2  Ibid.,  Introd.,  30-35-  3  Ibid.,  I.  164-166.  *  Ibid.,  II.  45- 


MORALITY    OF   PANTHEISM.  461 

"  Thine  own  self,  Bharata,  is  the  holy  stream,  whose  shrine  is 
virtue,  whose  water  is  truth,  whose  bank  is  character,  whose  waves 
are  sympathy.  There  bathe,  O  Son  of  Pandu  !  Thy  inward  life 
is  not  by  water  made  pure."  l 

"  Better  be  silent  than  speak  ill ;  better  give  up  life  than  love 
harsh  words  ;  better  beggar's  fare  than  luxury  at  another's  board." 2 

"Only  that  life  is  worth  living  which  is  free.  If  they  live  who 
depend  on  others,  who  are  dead  ? " 3 

"  He  has  all  good  things  whose  soul  is  content:  the  whole  earth 
is  spread  with  leather,  for  him  whose  own  feet  are  well  shod." 

"  He  has  read  and  heard  and  acquired  all  things,  who  turns  his 
back  on  hope,  and  expects  nothing." 4 

"  Do  not  rage,  like  a  cloud,  with  empty  thunder :  the  noble  man 
does  not  let  the  good  or  ill  that  foes  have  done  him  be  seen."5 

"  What  is  a  brave  man's  fatherland,  and  what  a  foreign  country  ? 
Wherever  he  goes,  his  strength  makes  that  land  his  own." 6 

"  A  bad  man  is  like  an  earthen  pot,  easy  to  break  and  hard  to 
mend.  A  good  man  is  like  a  golden  vase,  hard  to  break  and  easy 
to  mend."  7 

"  Disposition  is  hard  to  overcome.  If  you  make  a  dog  a  king, 
will  he  not  still  gnaw  leather  ?  "s 

"A  gem  may  be  trodden  under  foot,  and  glass  be  put  on  the 
head  :  yet  the  glass  is  only  glass,  and  the  gem  is  still  a  gem." 9 

"  How  shall  teaching  help  him  who  is  without  understanding  ? 
Can  a  mirror  help  the  blind  to  see  ?  "  10 

"  It  is  to  no  purpose  that  the  bad  man  says,  I  have  read  the 
Vedas  and  the  Laws.  His  character  rules  him,  as  it  is  the  property 
to  milk  to  be  sweet."  " 

"  Wise  men  seek  not  things  unattainable :  grieve  not  over  the 
lost,  and  stand  firm  in  time  of  trouble."  12 

"  In  the  poisoned  tree  of  life  grow  two  sweet  fruits,  —  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  nectar  of  poetry  and  the  society  of  noble  men." 13 

"  Integrity,  self-sacrifice,  valor,  steadfastness  through  all  changes, 
sympathy,  loyalty,  and  truth  are  the  virtues  of  a  friend."  M 

1  Hitopades'a,  IV.  83,  86.  From  the  Mahabh.        2  Ibid.,  I.  129.  3  Ibid.,  II.  21. 

*  Ibid.,  I.  13s,  137.  5  Ibid.,  IV.  91.  8  Ibid.,  I.  96. 

1  Ibid.,  I.  86.  »  Ibid.,  III.  58.  »  Ibid.,  II.  67. 

»•  Ibid.,  III.  117.  »  Ibid.,  I.  15.  "  Ibid.,  I.  161. 

«  Ibid.,  I.  145.  M  Ibid.,  I.  89. 


462  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

"  By  whom  is  this  jewel  created,  this  word  of  two  syllables 
(Mitram,  friend),  wherein  we  pour  the  joy  of  love,  which  guards  us 
from  sorrow  and  foes  and  fear  ?  A  friend  who  gladdens  the  heart, 
sharing  one's  pleasure  and  pain,  is  hard  to  find.  Friends  in  pros- 
perity, self-seekers,  abound  ;  but  misfortune  is  their  touchstone." 

"  Be  hospitable  to  thine  enemy  when  he  comes  to  thy  door  :  the 
tree  withdraws  not  its  shade  even  from  the  wood-cutter. 

"  Good  men  are  compassionate  to  the  lowest  beings.  The  moon 
refuses  not  its  light  to  the  hut  of  the  Chandala. 

"  A  guest  who  departs  from  a  house  disappointed,  leaves  his 
own  sins  behind  him,  and  carries  away  the  virtue  of  its  owner. 

"  Even  a  low-born  man  who  comes  to  a  Brahman's  house  must 
be  honored :  the  stranger  is  on  the  same  footing  with  the  gods." 2 

"  He  alone  is  to  be  praised,  he  is  blest,  from  whom  the  weak  and 
suppliant  go  not  away  with  hopes  destroyed."  3 

"  The  friendship  of  noble  persons  endures  to  the  end  of  life  ; 
their  anger  is  quickly  appeased ;  their  liberality  is  without  self- 
interest."  4 

"  Only  the  foolish  ask,  '  Is  this  one  of  us  or  an  outside  person  ? ' 
To  the  noble  the  whole  world  is  a  family."  5 

"  One  should  spare  his  neighbor,  thinking  of  the  pain  one  feels 
when  he  sees  that  he  must  die." 

"  O  sacred  earth  !  why  dost  thou  endure  the  false  man,  who  re- 
turns noble  and  trusting  kindness  with  evil  treatment  ?  "  6 

"  This  life,  which  is  like  a  wave  trembling  in  the  wind,  is  in  a 
right  cause  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  good  of  others." 7 

"  Let  the  wise  man  give  up  his  goods  for  the  sake  of  his  neigh- 
bor ;  for  the  sake  of  the  good  let  him  even  give  his  life." 8 

"  As  life  is  dear  to  thee,  so  is  it  to  other  creatures  :  the  good 
have  mercy  on  all,  as  on  themselves. 

"  He  who  regards  another's  wife  as  his  mother,  his  wealth  as  vain, 
and  all  creatures  as  himself,  is  wise. 

"  Give  to  the  poor,  O  son  of  Kunti !  not  to  the  rich.  Medicine  is 
for  the  sick,  not  for  those  that  are  well. 

"  The  gift,  bestowed  with  right  purpose,  at  right  time  and  place, 
on  one  who  cannot  repay  it,  is  to  be  called  a  real  gift."9 

1  HitopadeSa,  I.  203,  204.  s  Ibid.,  I.  52-57.  3  Ibid.,  I.  183. 

«  Ibid.,  I.  180.  6  ibid.,  I.  64.  8  Ibid.,  I.  61,  73. 

1  Ibid.,  III.  140.  8  Ibid.,  I.  38.  9  Ibid.,  I.  10-14. 


MORALITY    OF    PANTHEISM.  463 

"  Between  virtues  and  the  body  there  is  infinite  difference :  the 
body  perishes  in  a  moment,  virtues  endure  while  the  world  lasts." 1 

"  The  wise  will  follow  duty,  as  if  death  were  already  grasping  his 
hair." 2 

The    following   are   from  the  Panchatantra,   a   still 
older  collection  of  tales  and  sentences,  whose    Pancha. 
relation    to   the    Hitopades'a   is    not   yet   very    tantra- 
clearly  understood  :  — 

"  In  all  actions,  to  be  like  one's  self  is  the  praise  of  the  wise  : 
this  makes  smooth  the  right  path,  so  full  of  hindrance." 3 

"  When  the  just  falls,  it  is  like  a  ball  of  feathers,  but  the  wicked 
falls  like  a  clod." 4 

"A  noble  person  never  fails  in  protecting  others,  even  in  his 
extreme  need  ;  as  the  pearl  loses  not  its  whiteness,  though  it  have 
passed  through  the  flames." 6 

"  The  storm  blows  down  the  strongest  tree,  if  it  stands  alone ; 
but  not  the  well-rooted  trees  that  stand  together." 6 

"He  who  is  kind  to  those  that  are  kind  to  him  does  nothing 
great.     To  be  good  to  the  offender  is  what  the  wise  call  good." 7 

"A  good  prince  is  eye  to  the  blind,  friend  to  the  friendless, 
father  and  mother  of  all  who  do  well."  8 

"  Where  he  is  honored  who  is  unworthy  of  honor,  and  he  de- 
pised  who  deserves  respect,  there  come  three  things,  —  famine, 
pestilence,  and  war."9 

The  fact  that  these  popular  "  Books  of  Wisdom  "  are 
mainly  of  Buddhist  origin  10  does  not  weaken  their 
testimony  to  the  union  of  practical  morality  with  pan- 
theistic sentiment.  The  Hindu  masses  who  have 
rejected  Buddhism  as  a  system  of  negations  cherish 
these  manly  maxims  as  the  true  philosophy  of  life. 
They  are  heard  on  the  lips  of  the  poorest  people,  and 
circulate  freely  through  city  and  village.     As  in  the 

1  Hitopades'a,  I.  43.  a  ibid.,  Introd.,  3. 

s  Panchat.  (Benfey's  German  transl.)  B.  III.  *  Ibid.,  II. 

»  Ibid.  IV.  6  ibid.,  HI.  7  ibid.,  IV.  ix. 

»  Ibid.,  I.  xii.  »  Ibid.,  III.  x. 

10  See  Benfey,  Einleitung  z.  Panchatanira. 


464  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

gnomic* literature  of  other  races,  so  here,  the  higher 
ethics  are  combined  with  maxims  of  prudential  and 
even  of  selfish  quality,  though  these  last  are  very 
rare.1  Plaints  of  poverty,  and  policies  that  secure 
success  are  quaintly  mixed  with  admonitions  on  the 
brevity  of  life  and  the  vanity  of  riches.  And,  as  with 
Buddhist  teaching  generally,  the  inculcation  of  good 
will  sometimes  runs  out  into  extravagant  forms  of  self- 
sacrifice.  These  fables  are  in  fact  an  honest  picture 
of  human  life,  and  proverbs  are  not  wanting  which 
answer  to  every  human  quality  represented  therein. 
That  those  of  sense  and  shrewdness  should  abound 
is  but  another  proof  that  pantheism  does  not  exclude 
practical  capacities  and  aims. 

Bhartrihari,  a  very  ancient  gnomic  poet,  whose 
"  sentences  "  on  human  life  and  conduct  are  very  popu- 
lar in  India,  begins  with  the  praise  of  love  and  beauty, 
and  ends  with  the  praise  of  devotion  :  — 

"Wisdom  is  a  treasure  thieves  cannot  steal.  It  grows  by  spend- 
ing, and  it  cannot  pass  away.  The  wise  are  the  rich ;  and  ye,  O 
princes  !  will  never  become  their  equals." 

"  Without  the  wisdom  that  burns  away  our  sins,  the  Vedas  are 
nothing  but  men's  trading  wares." 

"  Virtue  has  no  need  of  penances,  nor  a  pure  heart  of  washing 
in  the  Ganges,  nor  a  true  man  of  human  protection,  nor  magna- 
nimity of  any  ornament,  nor  the  wise  of  any  treasure  but  wisdom." 

"  Though  thy  efforts  fail,  be  steadfast,  and  thou  shalt  be  exalted. 
The  torch  thrown  on  the  ground  goes  not  out." 

"  He  who  has  given  himself  to  virtue,  and  felt  the  joy  of  obedi- 
ence to  duty,  will  give  up  life,  but  not  his  purpose." 

"  If  the  thistle  has  no  leaves,  is  the  spring  to  be  blamed  ;  or  the 
sun,  if  bats  fly  not  by  day  ;  or  the  cloud,  if  no  drop  of  rain  fall  into 

1  The  worst  of  these  in  the  Hitopadesa  are  suggested  by  the  good  mouse  (B.  1.)  — 
purely  for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  heroic  professions  of  the  king  of  the  doves,  who  begs 
him  to  gnaw  his  subjects  out  of  the  net  before  himself,  thus  preferring  their  safety  to  his 
own.  The  selfish  maxims  are  promptly  rejected,  and  answered  by  others  of  the  opposite 
quality :  whereat  the  mouse  praises  this  wisdom  of  self-sacrifice  as  worthy  of  a  king. 


MORALITY    OF   PANTHEISM.  465 

the  cuckoo's  beak  ?  So  blame  not  fate  :  not  so  wilt  thou  change  its 
path." 

"  Go  not  aside  from  wisdom  :  then  shall  fire  become  as  water,  and 
the  sea  as  a  well ;  Meru  shall  be  as  a  hillock,  and  the  lion  as  a 
gazelle ;  poison  shall  be  sweet  as  nectar,  and  serpents  a  crown  of 
flowers." 

"  As  shadows  in  the  morning  is  friendship  with  the  wicked : 
hour  by  hour  it  wanes.  But  friendship  with  the  good  grows  like 
the  shadows  of  eve,  till  life's  sun  shall  have  set." 

"  The  drop  of  rain  falls  on  glowing  iron,  and  is  no  more.  It  falls 
on  a  flower,  and  shines  like  a  pearl.  It  sinks  into  a  shell  at  the 
happy  hour,  and  becomes  the  pearl  itself.  Such  the  difference  be- 
tween kinds  of  friendship  among  men." 

"  To  do  good  in  secret,  to  conceal  one's  good  act,  to  help  the 
poor  when  he  comes,  to  be  moderate  in  prosperity,  always  to  speak 
kindly,  is  the  path  of  wisdom."  ' 

I  add  a  few  selections  of  similar  ethical  purport 
from  other  popular  Hindu  writings  :  — 

"  In  thy  passage  over  this  earth,  where  the  paths  are  now  low, 
now  high,  and  the  true  way  seldom  distinguished,  thy  steps  must 
needs  be  unequal ;  but  fidelity  to  thyself  will  bear  thee  right  on- 
ward." 2 

"  Let  thy  motive  lie  in  the  act,  not  in  the  reward.  Having  sub- 
dued thy  passions,  do  thy  own  work,  unconcerned  for  the  result. 
Then  shalt  thou  stand  untainted  in  the  world,  as  the  lotus-leaf  lies 
on  the  waters  unwet." 3 

The  Mahabharata  says  of  Arjuna  that  — 

"  Neither  lust  nor  fear  nor  love  could  tempt  him  to  transgress 
his  duty,  or  to  do  evil :  "  — 

and  Rama  in  the  Ramayana  that  — 

"As  birds  are  made  to  fly  and  rivers  to  run,  so  the  soul  to 
follow  duty." 

"  As  the  fragrance  of  a  blossoming  tree  spreads  far,  so  the  fra- 
grance of  a  pure  action."  4 

1  Bhartr-  (Von  Bohlen's  Latin  vers.)  I.  13;  III.  72;  I.  45,  75;  II.  100;  I.  89, 
78,  5°.  57- 

2  Sakuntal&.  3  BJiagavad-Gita.  4  Malianarayana  Upa.71.,  II. 

30 


466  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

"As  the  stars  disappear,  so  fades  the  memory  of  a  kindness  out 
of  an  evil  heart."  ' 

"  Our  senses  are  like  lattices,  at  which  the  deities  keep  watch. 
And  if  the  soul  unconsciously  leaves  them  open  to  the  poisonous 
air  of  temptation,  sincere  prayer  to  these  heavenly  guardians  will 
save  the  precious  light." 

"  How  can  he  who  loves  all  men  be  torn  by  affliction  ?  Or  he 
who  hates  be  free  from  terror  ?  or  the  voluptuary  from  misery  ? 
How  can  he  fail  who  acts  wisely?  How  can  he  be  happy  who  mur- 
murs at  Providence  ?  Who  can  be  glorious  without  virtue  ?  who 
truly  dishonored  without  blame  ?  And  how  without  justice  shall 
the  kingdom  stand  ? " 2 

"  He  who  lives  pure  in  thought,  free  from  malice,  contented, 
leading  a  holy  life,  feeling  tenderness  for  all  creatures,  speaking 
wisely  and  kindly,  humble  and  sincere,  has  Vasudeva  (Vishnu)  ever 
in  his  heart.  The  Eternal  makes  not  his  abode  within  the  heart  of 
that  man  who  covets  another's  wealth ;  who  injures  living  creatures  ; 
who  speaks  harshness  or  untruth ;  who  is  proud  of  his  iniquity ; 
whose  mind  is  evil." 3 

"  Men  are  ever  seeking,  never  attaining,  bliss.  They  die  thirst- 
ing. The  whole  world  is  suffering  under  triple  affliction.  Why 
should  I  hate  beings  who  are  objects  for  compassion  ?  why  cherish 
malignity  towards  those  who  are  more  prosperous  than  myself?  I 
should  rather  sympathize  with  their  happiness.  For  to  suppress 
unkind  feelings  is  itself  a  reward."* 

"  It  is  the  duty  of  the  good  man,  even  in  the  moment  of  his  de- 
struction, not  only  to  forgive,  but  to  seek  to  bless  his  destroyer,  even 
as  the  sandal-tree  sheds  perfume  on  the  axe  that  fells  it."  5 

"  Heaven's  gate  opens  to  the  good  without  a  gift :  the  gate  shut 
fast  to  the  wicked,  though  he  bring  hundred-fold  offerings. 

"  Put  a  thousand  horses  in  the  scale,  yet  shall  virtue  be  the 
heavier  weight. 

"  The  sweet  scent  of  flowers  is  lost  on  the  breeze,  but  the  fra- 
grance of  virtue  endures  for  ever. 

"  Whatever  men  do  of  good  or  evil,  they  shall  reap  the  fruit  in 
due  season. 

"  The  foolish,  like  a  child,  knows  not  if  things  grow  better  or 
worse  ;  and  while,  drawn  by  the  roses,  he  lets  the  orchard  go,  he 
will  mourn  over  the  fading  flower,  and  lose  the  golden  fruit."  6 

1  Hindu  Play  (Wilson).  2  Ramayana.  s   Vishnu  Parana.,  III.  vii. 

4   Visknu  Purana,  I.  xvii.  6  Halhed's  Gentoo  Code.  °     Ramayana. 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  467 

And  so  we  may  judge  whether  Manu  is  not  justified 
in  claiming  what  he  does  for  the  religion  of  his  race. 
"  Of  all  duties  the  first  is  to  know  the  Supreme.  It  is 
the  most  exalted  science,  and  assures  immortal  life. 
For  in  the  knowledge  and  adoration  of  God,  which 
the  Veda  teaches,  all  rules  of  good  conduct  are  com- 
prised." "Wisdom,"  says  the  Hitopadesa,  "is  the 
highest  good  of  man  ;  for  it  cannot  be  sold  nor  taken 
from  him,  nor  can  it  ever  die.  He  who  hath  it  not, 
the  destroyer  of  doubt,  the  mirror  of  the  unseen,  the 
eye  of  all,  is  blind."1 

The  belief  that  the  substance  of  life  is  one  and 
divine  has  its  forms  in  all  ages,  —  recognitions,        .    . 

*=>       '  &  '     The  mtui- 

more  or  less  enlightened,  of  a  constant  spir-  tionofiife 
itual  fact ;  to  which  thought  is  again  and  again  as  one' 
remanded,  under  broader  and  clearer  aspects,  as  man 
advances  to  new  forms  of  culture.  And  this  better 
knowledge  comes  mainly  from  doing  justice  to  the 
balancing  fact  of  difference,  or  individuality. 

In  the  Hindu  mystic,  a  child  of  religious  instinct 
and  dream,  the  unity  of  life  was  an  exclusive  con- 
sciousness, an  all-absorbing  wonder  and  delight. 
For  the  religious  sentiment  of  itself  is  not  analytic, 
but  integrative ;  absorbed  in  what  it  loves,  it  sees  not 
parts,  but  wholes  ;  it  dissolves  antagonisms  and  dis- 
tinctions, just  as  it  does  doubts  or  fears,  in  its  own 
fervent  heat.  While  the  understanding  is  unde- 
veloped,  this  mystic  sense  of  oneness  is  of  course 
blind  to  the  capabilities  of  life,  and  the  meaning  of 
its  relations.  As  in  Brahmanism,  it  even  helps  to 
eternize  social  wrongs  ;  either  ignoring  them  as  illu- 
sion, or  else  accepting  them  as  elements  of  a  divine 
order,  and  reconciling  them  in  its  all-dissolving  dream. 

1  Hitop.,  Introd.,  4,  9. 


468  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Yet  this  dream  is  divination  also  of  a  central  truth, 
whose  practical  and  social  meaning  grows  with  prog- 
ress, and  appears  in  the  latest  science  and  faith. 

For  these  are  really  the  goal  involved  in  that  mystic 
point  of  departure,  that  intuitive  ideal  of  the  unity  of 
life.  The  course  of  history  justifies  and  reaffirms  it 
on  a  broader  plane,  having  at  last  developed  its  .human 
values.     We  can  here  but  sketch  this  process. 

In  the  Oriental  philosophies,  unity  is  for  the  most 
Its historical  part  a  religious  abstraction,  an  ideal  of  con- 
evoiution.  templation.  But  with  Greek  and  Roman  the 
understanding  comes  to  its  rights.  The  individual 
asserts  his  validity.  The  human  and  finite  are 
marked  off,  as  against  the  infinite,  and  studied,  in  and 
for  themselves.  And  in  this  polarity  or  antagonism 
come  liberty  and  progress.  Man  recognizes  his  own 
regulated  powers  to  be  the  path  to  truth,  beauty,  good. 
It  is  no  longer  the  unlimited,  but  limit;  that  is  divine. 
What  Kapila  and  his  Sankhya  reaction  on  Vedantism 
showed  in  germ  thus  reaches  maturer  expression 
under  more  favoring  skies,  in  more  energetic  races. 
Here  all  is  relation,  contrast,  difference. 

With  the  Greek  comes  the  triumph  of  dialectics, 
the  clear  analysis  of  ideas  and  principles,  the  keenest 
sense  of  individual  purpose.  With  the  Greek  appears 
duality  of  matter  and  mind  ;  also  of  matter  and  num- 
ber. Pythagoras  determines  the  harmonious  relations 
of  finite  things.  Xenophanes,  who  pronounced  unity 
to  be  the  ultimate  fact,  as  distinctly  as  the  Vedantists, 
and  who  recognized  the  illusion  of  the  phenomenal 
world  as  fully,  yet  not  the  less  insisted  that  all  visible 
things  should  be  studied,  and  had  his  own  natural 
history  of  their  origin  and  development.  So  the 
Ionian    cities    first    thoroughly    distinguished   politics 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  469 

from  theocracy ;  and  Greek  life  emancipated  govern- 
ment, making  it  a  separate  independent  science.  And 
the  first  great  step  was  taken  towards  freeing  men 
from  religious  bondage  when  Xenophanes  pointed  out 
the  fact  that  they  made  their  own  gods. 

"  The  gods  have  not  given  every  thing  to  man.  It  is  man  who 
has  ameliorated  his  own  destiny." 

The  Prometheus  of  ^Eschylus,  resisting  Jove  for  the 
sake  of  mankind,  and  predicting  his  downfall  at  the 
hands  of  the  son  of  a  mortal  woman,  illustrates  the 
same  protest  of  the  human,  against  an  overwhelming 
sense  of  infinity.  Taine  has  admirably  pointed  out 
this  quality  of  the  Greek  mind.  "The  Greeks  have 
no  sentiment  of  this  infinite  universe,  in  which  a 
generation  of  people  is  but  an  atom  in  time  and  place. 
Eternity  does  not  set  up  before  them  its  pyramid  of 
myriads  of  ages.  The  universal  escapes  them,  or  at 
least  half  occupies  them,  or  remains  in  the  background 
in  their  religion."  1  In  Rome,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
universal  was  everywhere  pursued,  yet  always  in  con- 
crete and  human  forms,  —  as  political  organization, 
as  jurisprudence,  as  world-wide  sway. 

Even  in  Greece  and  Rome,  however,  we  still  find 
the  religious  sentiment  to  be,  on  the  whole,  inclusive 
of  all  human  spheres  and  functions.  It  gives  man 
and  nature  their  meaning  for  art,  science,  philosophy, 
domestic,  social,  municipal  life  ;  so  that  there  is  still 
a  sense  in  which  life  might  make  the  impression  of  a 
divine  unity.     But  the  process  advances. 

Aristotle  has  defined ;  analyzing  man  and  nature  as 
he  could.  Bacon  goes  further ;  plots  the  sciences  on 
a  map,  and  marks  the  regions  yet  to  be  filled.  Men 
botanize,  dissect,  unroll  the  earth's  pages,  loose  the 

1  Art  in  Greece,  p.  38. 


470  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

bands  of  Orion,  and  resolve  the  galaxy  into  myriads 
of  worlds.  It  is  telescope  and  calculus,  instruments  of 
analysis,  that  are  divine.  We  learn  the  mechanics 
of  religion,  politics,  commerce,  art.  Men  search  out 
the  cunning  workmanship  of  the  universe.  They  are 
all  eye  to  detect  how  it  was  contrived  by  a  Being  who 
plans,  devises,  manipulates,  constructs  like  themselves. 
In  this  inspection  of  definite  processes  the  immanence 
of  the  infinite  gradually  recedes  from  thought,  and 
religion  enters  the  phase  of  a  more  or  less  external 
deism,  oscillating  between  the  Paleys  and  Voltaires ; 
knowing  God  only  as  a  manipulator  of  materials 
provided  for  him  from  without,  just  as  one  knows  an 
architect  by  the  style  of  his  house,  or  a  watch- 
maker by  his  watch.  It  is  not  strange  that  analytic 
science,  elated  by  its  discoveries  in  this  realm  of  de- 
finable relations  and  palpable  mechanism,  and  in- 
attentive to  the  infinite  substance  that  must  condition 
all  phenomena,  should  concentrate  its  homage  at  last 
on  the  processes  by  which  it  achieves  its  triumph. 
Analysis,  in  fact,  by  its  own  function  of  taking  the 
world  to  pieces,  instead  of  receiving  the  impression 
of  its  unity  and  integrity,  is  reduced  to  holding  this 
critical  process  as  the  essential  thing,  the  vital  fact  of 
the  universe.  Mind  and  nature  become  in  its  theory 
simply  objective  material  for  testing  and  reducing, 
mere  hylic  mass  for  manipulation  by  its  forces ; 
whether  to  afford  them  discipline,  or  to  give  scope  to 
their  energies,  or  to  reflect  their  praise. 

This  merely  analytic  process  is  quite  incompetent  to 
reveal  truth  in  the  form  of  life.  To  dissect  its  objects, 
it  must  destroy  them.  It  slays  that  beautiful  unity  of 
functions  and  relations,  in  which  life  is  mysteriously 
shrined.     In  the  heap  of  dead  fibres  and  organs,  on 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM..  47 1 

which  it  has  operated,  and  which  it  displays  in  their  / 
mere  outward  mechanism,  what  resemblance  is  there 
to  the  living,  breathing,  inspired  body?  What  resem- 
blance to  the  former  life  can  you  get  by  putting  them 
together  again?  Phosphorus  in  the  growing  grain  is 
food  for  human  brains :  extract  this  phosphorus  by 
chemical  process,  and  it  is  poison.  Being  must  be 
seen  in  its  natural  and  vital  relations,  in  its  integrity, 
or  it  is  not  seen  at  all.  Under  the  power  of  mere 
analysis,  science  would  become  pure  autopsy,  and 
nature  have  no  informing  soul. 

The  genius  of  scientific  and  practical  races  has 
therefore  not  been  without  its  tendencies  to  transform 
the  living  universe  —  which  for  the  contemplative  spirit 
is  thrilling  with  a  mystic  divine  pulsation,  and  which 
Plato  even  called  a  living  creature  —  into  a  well-devised 
machine.  Their  vast  capacities,  under  the  lead  of 
analysis,  have  developed  its  definable  uses,  rather 
than  felt  the  mystery  of  its  life.  As  one  after 
another  they  have  unfolded  its  flowing  activities,  its 
unfathomed  forces,  they  have  seemed  to  claim  these 
by  right  of  creation  quite  as  much  as  by  that  of  dis- 
covery ;  to  throw  off  the  Infinite  as  a  separable  ele- 
ment, and  then  refuse  it  all  place  in  the  triumph  of  the 
very  powers  which  it  conditions  and  supplies ;  writing 
on  each  freshly  won  field,  "  God  is  not  here,  but,  if 
anywhere,  behind  and  beyond ; "  insisting  all  the 
time,  observe,  that  the  idea  of  God  as  a  distinct  exter- 
nal power  is  the  only  idea  of  God,  being  that  which 
analysis  must  report.  Their  physical  science  goes 
further  still,  and  in  its  search  for  physical  origins  of 
life  has  often  quite  overlooked  the  substance  for  the 
processes  of  nature,  and  mistaken  the  mechanism  of 
life  for  its  explanation  and  cause. 


472  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

But  science  cannot  penetrate  far  on  her  divine  path 
Through     without  discerning  that  it  is  divine.     Science 

mature  sci-  .  ,         , ,  ,       r 

ence.  has  no  commission  to  take  the  mystery  out  ot 

nature,  to  exorcise  from  its  laws  the  life  that  preserves 
them  from'  being  fathomed  by  progressive  thought, 
or  marred  by  imperfect  will.  So  much  is  clearly  dis- 
cerned by  the  broadest  scientific  minds  of  the  day. 

Science  solves  no  problem  but  by  recognizing 
another  and  more  interior,  disclosed  by  the  solution 
itself,  as  a  flower  within  its  opening  sheath.  The 
freest  explorers  of  nature  not  only  see  most  clearly  the 
unity  of  the  universe,  tracing  its  laws  through  their 
relations  to  each  other  and  to  the  whole,  but  also  the 
infinitude  of  these  relations,  inexhaustible  for  every 
atomic  fact.  Not  less  is  the  unity  of  life  revealed  in 
the  wonderful  gradations  of  its  forms ;  in  the  compre- 
hension of  all  lower  stages  within  all  higher  ones ; 
and  in  endless  subtle  affinities,  transitions,  transforma- 
tions, that  forbid  absolute  lines  of  separation  between 
these  stages  of  ascent.  And  the  whole  drift  of  mod- 
ern science  is  towards  the  recognition  of  what  has 
been  described  by  one  of  its  ablest  exponents  as  "  one 
harmonious  action,  underlying  the  whole  of  nature, 
organic  and  inorganic,  cosmical,  physical,  chemical, 
terrestrial,  vital,  and  social."1 

Yet  this  unity  is,  it  must  also  be  observed,  of  a 
purely  transcendental  kind.  It  is  not  explicable,  or 
even  expressible,  by  the  processes  of  science,  which 
can  but  trace  the  order  of  phenomena,  and  must 
therefore  confess  herein  the  immanence  of  the  infinite 
throughout  its  fields  of  research.  Science,  then,  must 
inevitably  bring  fresh  tributes  to  mystic  contempla- 
tion, and  reconcile  liberty  and   knowledge  with  that 

1  Mivart,  Goiesis  of  Species,  p-  239. 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  ,  473 

old  eternal  longing  of  the  soul  for  the  unfathomable 
One. 

Of  this  whole  process,  miracle  is  of  course  the  in- 
tolerable negation.      If  it  were  possible  for  the^, 

=>  r  Through  re- 

notion  that  the  course  of  natural  law  can  bejectionof 
violated  or  suspended  to  hold  its  ground,  itmira 
would' utterly  abolish  the  power  of  science  to  reveal 
immanent  deity,  and  even  the  idea  of  deity  as  infinite 
intelligence.  Logically,  there  could  be  no  science, 
and  no  religion  ;  only  observations  of  phenomena  that 
point  to  no  universal  or  reliable  basis  of  belief.  How 
could  these  observations  really  reveal  One  who  may 
contradict  them  to-morrow?  But  such  contempt  of 
nature  and  distrust  of  its  orderly  laws  is  not  properly 
Aryan.  With  races  of  this  stock  science  hastens  to 
fulfil  its  religious  function.  The  Semitic  mind  also 
has  learned  to  greet  this  form  of  revelation  as  freely 
as  the  Aryan. 

Oriental  faith  in  miracles  knew  no  bounds.  But 
miracle  was  as  universal  in  the  East  as  law  with  us,  and 
so  that  stupendous  mythology  had  meaning  for  the  re- 
ligious sentiment.  There  was  no  vain  distinction  made 
between  miraculous  and  natural  revelation ;  but  the 
whole  actual  or  possible  of  nature  and  life  was,  as  it 
were,  insphered  in  deity.  In  a  child's  wonder  at  all 
he  sees,  special  wonder-working  counts  for  no  more 
than  plain  nature. 

The  scientific  conception  of  invariable  law  comes, 
then,  not  to  destroy  this  divine  dream  that  the  The  miss!on 
universe  is  in  God,  so  dear  to  contemplative of  science- 
minds  in  every  age,  but  to  interpret  and  fulfil  it. 
Man  has  been  learning  to  reconcile  freedom,  even 
in  deity,  with  orderly  and  unchanging  ways,  and  to 
clear  his  own  ideal  of  perfection  from  every  element 


474  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  exclusiveness  or  divided  power.  He  has  been 
learning  that  the  closest  study  of  mind  and  nature 
does  not  free  him  from  the  conviction  that  infinite  in- 
telligence is  the  inmost  ground  of  finite,  but  confirms 
it  by  all  the  certainties  of  law.  The  mystic  faith* 
which,  while  yet  an  infantile  instinct,  sang  of  Brahma 
as  the  All,  and  of  the  world  of  forms  as  his  divine 
play,  has  thus  permanent  meaning  for  man ;  and  all 
its  phases  in  history  have  been  pointing  beyond  them- 
selves to  a  maturity  which  only  science  could  bring. 
Clothed  in  new  knowledge  as  in  new  names ;  inter- 
preted by  things  natural  and  practical,  and  giving 
these  a  sublime  reach  of  relation  and  promise ;  set  to 
largest  social  uses,  and  inspiring  them  with  universal- 
ity, identifying  religion  with  the  free  growth  of  every 
human  faculty,  with  labor  and  with  life,  and  so  eman- 
cipating it  from  dependence  on  mediator  or  miracle,  — 
this  mystic  faith  in  the  oneness  of  God  and  man 
reappears  at  last  as  a  freedom  and  intelligence,  which 
neither  distinctive  Brahmanism,  Judaism,  nor  Chris- 
tianity could  express. 

I  perceive  no  power  either  in  the  friends  or  foes  of 
science  to  resolve  it  into  spiritual  negation.     It 

Spiritual  re-  .   . 

lationsof     can  neither  become  the  slave  of  superstition 


science- 


nor  the  bar  to  sentiment  and  ideal  vision.  It 
refuses  to  be  ruled  by  the  hostile  supernaturalist,  who 
imagines  that  a  development  theory  must  involve 
atheism.  It  must  no  less  distinctly  decline  the  pro- 
posal of  the  student  of  nature  to  banish,  in  the  name 
of  law  itself,  "  what  we  call  spirit  and  spontaneity," 
from  human  thought.1 

For  a  law,  physical  or  psychological,  is  no  mere 
automatic    machinery.       It   is   a  mode   of  action,  so 

1  Huxley  on  Physical  Basis  of Life. 


PIETY    OF    PANTHEISM.  475 

orderly,  so  harmoniously  related  to  other  laws,  so 
expressive  of  what  we  most  reverence  in  thought, 
that  to  divorce  it  from  mind  would  be  to  refuse  belief 
in  the  ideal  forms  of  those  attributes  which  most 
dignify  mind ;  those  highest  functions  to  which  in- 
telligence, as  we  find  it  in  ourselves,  clearly  points 
upward.  Instead  of  being  apart  from  mind,  the  con- 
stancy of  natural  law  implies  an  inseparable  mental 
force,  none  the  less  real  because  without  the  limita- 
tions which  human  intelligence  involves.  Its  univer- 
sality does  not  make  it  the  less,  but  the  more  divine. 
A  man  may  make  wheels,  springs,  and  levers  his 
agents,  and  withdraw ;  for  inertia  and  weight  do  not 
depend  on  his  fingers,  and  the  machine  will  get  on  for 
a  while  without  his  aid.  But  deity  cannot  leave  the 
laws  of  the  universe  to  work  alone,  since  they  are  sim- 
ply forms  of  divine  energy ;  the  activity  of  the  law 
being  nothing  else  than  the  instant  energy  of  imma- 
nent mind.  That  this  energy  transcends  all  we  ex- 
perience as  personal  consciousness  does  not  alter  the 
fact  that  it  is  a  form  of  mind. 

What  serves  it  to  remand  this  wisdom  and  power 
to  a  distinct  sphere,  and  lay  it  quietly  aside  as  "The 
Unknowable  "  ?  How  indeed  can  that  be  unknowable 
of  which  we  know  that  it  exists,  and  of  which,  if  we 
are  to  allow  ourselves  competent  to  science  in  any 
form,  the  very  meaning  for  us  is  constant  self-mani- 
festation in  phenomena? 

The  mind  and  heart  of  man  still  fail  not  to  enter- 
tain the  never  solved,  yet  never  wholly  unanswered 
questions  which  a  secret  intuitive  assurance  will  not 
suffer  him  to  dismiss. 

What  is  this  instant  intelligence  whereby  the  uni- 
verse becomes  unity  and  order  and  growth  ?     What 


476  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

harmonizes  nature  and  man  ?  What  brings  the  atoms 
together  each  moment  to  form  the  coherent  globe,  and 
yet  holds  them  at  the  same  moment  apart,  so  that  two 
shall  never  touch  ?  What  lifts  each  separate  billow 
of  the  sea,  yet  binds  it  to  obey  the  tidal  swell  ? 

Discussion  as  to  which  is  the  one  great  force  in 
material  atoms,  attraction  or  self-repulsion  ;  or  whether 
all  things  come  to  pass  through  action  and  reaction 
of  the  two, — makes  no  difference  to  our  questions, 
which  go  deeper. 

What  is  that  in  conscience  which  is  so  at  one  with 
gravitation  and  affinity  and  light  ?  What  mysterious 
sway  makes  recollection  and  hope,  past  and  future, 
alike  our  servants  ?  What  directs  the  remedial  retri- 
butions, silent  and  sure,  to  bring  us  back  to  nature 
and  right  ? 

What  is  that  most  minute  attention  which  guards 
the  pulsations  of  the  heart;  keeps  thought,  affection, 
will,  coherent  and  untroubled;  buoying  up  individual 
existence  on  the  unfathomed  sea?  And  what  makes 
the  deep  that  brought  us  hither,  and  into  which  we 
return,  to  be  in  all  its  mystery  a  home  into  whose  care 
we  entrust  what  is  dearest  to  us  with  such  wondrous 
calmness? 

Questions  these  as  old  as  mind  and  heart,  earlier 
than  the  study  of  natural  laws,  and  not  set  aside  there- 
by. And  what  of  the  answer  ?  Was  it  only  because 
he  had  so  little  knowledge  of  the  definite  processes, 
the  delicate  distinctions  which  science  reveals,  that  the 
Hindu,  pondering  over  these  mysteries,  solved  all 
questions  by  pronouncing  the  one  word  Adhydtma,  — 
Over-soul  ?  Was  it  his  ignorance  that  spirit  and 
spontaneity  must  be  dismissed,  upon  the  discovery  of 
law,  that  prompted  the  answer,  "  Mind  is  all "  ?     Yet 


PIETY    OF   PANTHEISM.  477 

it  would  appear  that  our  science  of  invariable  har- 
monious law  itself  can  give  no  other  answer ;  and 
we  must  still  demand  what  invisible  life  is  plying  at 
this  seamless  warp  and  woof  of  "evolution,"  "natural 
selection,"  "metamorphosis."  Is  it  we  individually,  we 
collectively,  who  do  it,  — we  who  can  neither  make  nor 
mar  one  of  these  laws,  and  who  advance  only  by 
accepting  and  rightly  using  them  according  to  laws 
of  reason  and  love  ?  Is  it,  as  some  dream,  spirits 
wiser  than  we,  a  hierarchy  of  diviner  insights  and 
powers  ?  We  gain  not  a  step  by  such  ascent,  to- 
wards reaching  the  constitutive  force  of  law.  Spirits 
themselves  are  not  less  truly  expressions  of  this  force 
in  their  mental  energies,  for  being  also  free,  produc- 
tive, personal.  Their  spontaneity  itself  rests  on  this 
mystery  of  orderly  law,  like  the  movements  of  atoms 
and  of  suns.  Morality  is  personal  liberty  ;  but  it  is  no 
less  the  movement  of  immutable  law5  transcending 
the  individual,  while  it  lifts  him  into  the  freedom  and 
strength  which  belong  to  universal  truth. 

We  call  the  intelligence,  of  which  universal  law  is 
the  movement,  God.  But  in  reality  we  have  no  name 
for  it,  because  no  name  can  cover  the  whole.  Law, 
Life,  Love,  Unity,  Fatherhood,  Brotherhood,  this  re- 
ligion, that  religion,  all  are  waves  of  the  One  Divine 
Sea. 

None  of  these  syllables  have  quite  expressed  the 
truth  that  is  found  only  in  the  whole.  They  yield  but 
fragments  of  a  sense  that  was  never  sounded,  of  a 
growth  that  cannot  end. 

The   Vedantic  worship   of    One    Life    in    all    was 
darkened  by  idolatry  of  tradition  and  of  caste.  Escapefrom 
Yet  it  should  be  noted  that  caste  and  tradition Iimitations- 
were  held  to  be  steps  only,  to  higher  unity  of  being 


47§  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

which  should  dissolve  them  away.  After  all,  the  rela- 
tions of  the  devotee  with  his  ideal  of  the  Supreme 
were  felt  to  be  personal  and  direct :  his  own  sacrifice, 
his  own  disciplines,  not  another's,  were  relied  on  to 
make  his  illusions  vanish  and  reality  appear. 

All  special  religions  have,  in  like  manner,  presented 
obstacles  of  their  own  to  that  free  recognition  of  the 
infinite  which  they  sought.  Especially  is  this  true 
of  their  pretensions  to  supernatural  revelation,  which 
science  is  so  thoroughly  setting  aside  in  the  name  of 
law.  In  the  lower  stages  of  culture,  supernaturalism 
is  indeed  a  reaching  forth  to  find  God :  it  means  that 
there  is  at  least  a  divineness  in  things  exceptional  or 
wonderful,  for  those  who  have  not  yet  learned  what 
sacredness  there  is  in  things  familiar  and  near.  It  is, 
primarily  then,  a  form  of  spiritual  progress,  and  satis- 
fies real  needs.  But,  when  prolonged  into  scientific  ages 
and  enlightened  races,  claims  of  this  kind  practically 
teach  that  God  is  not  in  man,  in  nature,  in  history  ; 
but  out  of  man,  against  nature,  behind  history;  en- 
tering the  world  once  on  a  time,  with  what  men 
are  expected  to  receive  as  truer  than  truth,  more 
legislative  than  law,  more  loving  than  love.  They 
teach  that  spirit  is  to  be  held  the  more  divine 
for  secluding  itself  in  the  prescriptive  claim  of  one 
or  of  a  few.  They  teach  that  the  infinite  is  the 
better  recognized  for  confining  its  manifestation  to  a 
class,  an  epoch,  an  individual  life.  All  this  limita- 
tion of  universal  forces,  this  prescription  of  divine 
paths,  this  foreclosure  of  inspiration,  the  liberty  of 
our  day  holds  to  be  no  better  than  sarcophagus  or 
shroud.  It  will  choose  rather  that  pantheism  of 
the  Spirit  that  finds  God  instant  and  informing  in  all 
history,  experience,  law,  and  work.      What  Eastern 


PIETY    OF   PANTHEISM.  479 

contemplation  could  foreshadow,  Western  vigor  and 
grasp  of  things  will  have  to  deliver  out  of  its  limita- 
tions, old  and  new,  by  bringing  the  unities  of  races 
and  sciences  and  faiths,  to  serve,  now  that  their  day 
too  has  come,  this  eternal  desire  of  the  soul. 

Never  can  man,  with  whatsoever  motive,  even  in 
theory  separate  himself  from  God.  Theology  has 
vainly  attempted  it,  under  promptings  of  fear  and 
self-contempt.  Even  the  noble  sentiment  of  humility 
has  been  pressed  by  a  sense  of  imperfection  and  in- 
ward evil,  to  the  point  of  imagining  a  gulf  positively 
separating  the  divine  from  the  human.  It  has  thus 
attempted  what  would  divide  deity  itself,  and  abolish 
at  once  both  human  and  divine.  This  also  was  in 
vain. 

It  is  the  virtue  of  modern  culture,  intellectual  and 
moral,  that  it  educates  man  in  self-respect;  so  that 
he  shall  no  longer  think  himself  bound  to  deny  the  I 
validity  of  his  own  nature,  in  order  to  affirm  the  reality 
of  the  divine.  It  does  not  hesitate  to  assure  him  that 
it  is  only  where  he  finds  his  own  real  being  that  he  is  j 
finding  God. 


V. 


INCARNATION. 


31 


INCARNATION. 


HPHE  literal  meaning  of  Incarnation  is  that  deity 
-*•  assumes  a  material  body,  in  order  to  be  Universality 
clearly  recognized  as  present  in  the  actual of  the  idea- 
world.  Substantially,  the  belief  implies  a  profounder 
truth,  which  its  various  forms  imperfectly  express;  — 
that  Life  is  in  its  inmost  sense  one  with  God.  It  is 
essential  to  the  religious  sentiment,  and  has  as  many 
forms  as  there  are  religions  in  the  world.  God  must 
be  not  abstraction,  but  life.  Somehow  the  world  must 
manifest  the  Highest  Spirit.  Philosophy  affirms  that  it 
must  be  so,  by  the  very  nature  of  being,  notwithstand- 
ing the  conditions  of  relativity  and  imperfect  vision 
under  which  we  must  behold  this  manifestation.  The 
heart  pleads  that  it  is  surely  so,  because  God  loves 
us,  and  nothing  will  satisfy  this  love  but  to  take  our 
nature,  that  he  may  be  among  us  as  a  friend.  The 
disciples  of  every  positive  religion  insist  that  it  has 
been  so,  in  this  or  that  exalted  personage  who  has 
appeared,  to  found  a  faith.  The  devout  thinker  says  : 
It  is  so,  now  and  always  ;  for  what  is  God  but  the 
life  of  the  universe,  as  of  the  soul? 

No  race  of  men,  in  other  words,  is  satisfied  to  think 
of  the  world  as  separate  from  ideal  good.  And  every 
religion  devises  some  special  way  of  bringing  the  one 
into  the  other,  even  though  it  may  overlook  or  deny 


484  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

some  completer  way ;  because  all  instinctively  divine 
that  the  two  are  essentially  one.  Of  course  the  form 
chosen  is  noble  or  otherwise,  according  to  the  charac- 
ter of  the  civilization ;  but  the  endeavor  is  not  any- 
where wanting.  Even  where  little  inspiration  or  faith 
is  left,  religions  throw  themselves  back  upon  past 
ideals,  which  are  believed  to  have  exhausted  the 
sources  of  truth.  And  this  idolatry  becomes  the  more 
anxious  and  jealous,  the  feebler  the  faith  in  revelation 
through  living  consciousness  and  present  opportunity. 
The  manifold  superstition  that  hastens  to  call  itself 
"  inspirational  "  proves  at  least  the  need  of  being  some- 
how assured  of  a  divine  presence.  Lacking  the 
heavenly  form,  men  will  grub  within  the  earth  for  sub- 
stitutes. Nor  is  there  any  creature  so  insignificant, 
down  to  beetle  and  worm,  but  it  has  been  some- 
where supposed  to  guest  a  god.  And  if  science 
delights  to  discover  the  forces  of  gravitation  and  re- 
pulsion in  every  atom,  and  the  mysterious  dynamics 
of  life  in  every  organic  molecule,  may  not  the  relig- 
ious 'instinct  well  have  sought  to  greet  the  divinity  in 
every  form  of  being  from  the  loftiest  to  the  least? 

The  highest  type  of  the  idea  is  of  course  that  of 
incarnation  incarnation  in  Man ;  and  this  also  is  not  ex- 
inman.  clusively  revealed  to  any  race,  nor  in  any  per- 
son. It  is  human,  as  is  also  the  faith  that  deity  is  in 
sympathy  with  man,  and  uplifts  him  through  experi- 
ence of  his  needs  and  desires. 

Of  this  assurance  how  various  the  forms  in  human 
history,  all  more  or  less  imperfect  expressions  of 
the  idea.  For  the  Hindu,  it  was  God  manifest  in 
the  Brahman,  or  divinely  absorbed  man ;  for  the 
Hebrew  and  Mohammedan,  in  the  prophetic  man  ;  for 
the  Greek,  in  the  Delphic  man  or  woman,  oracular 


INCARNATION.  485 

and  ecstatic ;  for  the  Celt,  in  the  Druid  man  or  wo- 
man ;  for  the  modern  Persian  mystic,  in  the  Bab,  or 
man  who  represents  the  open  "  gate  "  of  God  ;  for  the 
Christian,  in  the  Christ,  or  man  supposed  to  have 
been  the  one  only  possible  Form  of  God,  or  else 
exclusively  "anointed"  to  be  the  central  life  of  hu- 
manity, or  nucleus  of  its  faith  in  God.  Then  for  the 
Roman  Catholic,  to  meet  the  needs  of  that  great 
organization  which  had  followed  logically  on  the  sub- 
mission of  mankind  to  this  central  Christ,  it  was  in- 
evitably the  papal  man. 

But  there  are  far  broader  and  more  spiritual  forms 
than  any  of  these, — into  which  the  idea  of  incar- 
nation is  now  steadily  advancing.  God  becomes  in- 
carnate through  the  eternal  principles  that  underlie 
the  conscience  and  the  affections  of  man  ;  in  his  reason 
and  his  faith ;  organized  into  character  as  intellectual 
light  and  noble  love.  And  again  God  is  incarnate  in 
the  social  man,  in  humanity  itself,  developed  at  once 
in  the  individual  and  in  the  race,  as  is  possible  only 
through  the  free  intermingling  and  mutual  balance  of 
all  human  elements,  and  inspiring  institutions  with 
those  principles  of  personal  freedom  and  moral  order 
by  which  the  human  becomes  one  with  the  divine. 
We  are  henceforth  to  find  this  unity  in  actual  life  ;  in 
wise,  productive  labor  of  brain  and  hand ;  in  an  inte- 
gral culture  of  the  individual  and  the  race,  instead  of 
reading  it  as  a  tradition  of  the  past,  veiled  behind  my- 
thology and  philosophy,  as  an  idealization  or  a  divine 
dream.  For  all  the  lofty  sentences  of  Eastern  wisdom 
do  not  tell  us  how  far  men  lived  according  to  the  best ; 
and  it  would  also  seem  that  the  more  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  studied  in  a  genuine  spirit  of  historical  re- 
search, the  less  can  be  affirmed  with  certainty  about 


486  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

that  personal  life  which  Christians  have  been  taught 
to  adore. 

But  everywhere  in  some  form  recurs  the  assurance 
that  God  is  manifest  in  man.  Ever  since  man,  made 
in  the  divine  image,  came  to  conscious  spiritual  life, 
he  has  felt  the  necessity  to  find  his  nature  indeed 
divine ;  to  behold  deity  in  it,  transfiguring  its  outward 
part  in  the  shimmer  of  miracle,  or  else  its  inward  and 
spiritual  part,  and  thence  the  body  and  its  uses,  in  the 
real  splendor  of  truth  and  love.  The  aspiration  never 
dies  out  of  the  soul,  because  God  and  the  soul  are 
essentially  one. 

And  this,  which  Oriental  instinct  divined,  was  re- 
cognized in  many  noble  ways,  not  only  in  its  relation 
to  the  desire  of  progress,  but  as  balance  to  the  sense 
of  moral  evil  and  spiritual  need. 

Emile  Burnouf 1  thinks  that  incarnation  in  the  corn- 
Aryan  incar- plete  sense  is  pre-eminently  an  Aryan  belief; 
nation.  ^a^  ft  jg  easier  for  an  Aryan  to  conceive  God 
as  incarnated  in  man  than  to  conceive  prophetic  inspi- 
ration in  the  Hebrew  sense.2  This  is  but  to  say  that 
the  Aryan  religious  sentiment  is  pantheistic.  And 
the  statement  is  true.  There  is  a  breadth  and  abso- 
luteness in  its  conception  of  the  unity  of  all  truth, 
which  is  not  satisfied  with  leaving  man  outside  divin- 
ity, the  mere  recipient  of  gifts  from  a  source  apart 
from  his  nature.  The  divine  desire  in  the  soul  implies 
the  divinity  of  the  soul.  The  object  of  worship  is 
more  than  object :  it  pre-existed  in  the  worshipper, 
and  prompted  the  aim  and  the  prayer.    The  yearnings 


1  A  rt.  on  the  Science  of  Religions,  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 

2  As  an  illustration  may  be  mentioned  the  Persian  sect  of  Babists,  already  referred  to, 
which  has  spread  over  a  large  portion  of  Persia,  and,  like  Sufism,  engrafted  upon  Islamite 
theism  a  pantheistic  faith.     See  Gobineau,  p.  477. 


INCARNATION.  487 

of  the  spirit  are  more  than  a  sense  of  need  :  they  are 
the  strength  of  an  inward  ideal  seeking  its  own.  And 
the  perception  of  this  truth  is  eminently  Aryan.  The 
tendency  of  Indo-European  philosophy  to  identify  sub- 
ject and  object  in  the  processes  of  existence  is  but 
the  speculative  form  of  a  profound  instinct  in  this 
race,  which  demands  that  culture  shall  express  by  its 
freedom  and  fulness  the  essential  unity  of  the  human 
with  the  divine. 

Burnouf  fails  to  appreciate  this  philosophical  scope 
of  the  fact  he  has  attempted  to  state,  when  he  ventures 
•to  infer  from  it  that  the  dogma  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
will  stand  permanently  for  all  Aryan  races  as  a  truth 
of  positive  religion.  It  is  mainly  from  Aryan  idealiza- 
tion indeed  that  the  dogma  in  question  has  proceeded. 
Jesus  himself  was  of  Semitic  descent :  the  earliest 
records  of  his  life  are  of  similar  origin,  and  form  no 
exception  to  the  instinctive  reluctance  of  the  Semite  to 
ascribe  pure  deity  to  the  human.  To  effect  this,  they 
required  to  be  clothed  in  purely  Aryan  conceptions 
from  Greek  and  Oriental  sources.  And  they  were  in 
fact  so  transformed,  in  the  Christian  consciousness. 
The  ideal  demand  thus  proved  itself  independent  of 
specific  historical  or  biographical  truth.  But  the  fact 
that  it  has  been  so  at  last  becomes  manifest,  by  the 
progress  of  inquiry,  to  all ;  and  then  the  absohiteness 
of  this  special  personal  symbol  can  no  longer  be  main- 
tained. It  was  provisional  and  temporary  ;  represent- 
ing one  stage  only  in  the  development  of  that  Aryan 
demand  for  incarnation  in  man,  which  passes  on  to 
broader  levels  and  maturer  sight.1 


1  This  is  fully  recognized  even  in  Babism,  which  Gobineau  describes  (p.  326)  as  defi- 
nitely affirming  that  God  has  not  willed  humanity  to  believe  that  revelation  had  reached  its 
limit,  or  that  its  oxun  revelation  was  shut  up  within  a  single  personage. 


488  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Of  all  personal  incarnation  that  which  man  has 
incarnation  most  loved  in  all  ages  is  God  manifest  as 
as  Saviour.  Saviour  ;  and  it  has  as  many  forms  as  there 
are  stages  and  epochs  in  his  comprehension  of  his 
own  spiritual  and  moral  needs. 

The  Christian  belief  that  God  was  incarnated  once 
for  all  for  this  purpose,  undoubtedly  contained,  in  its 
earnestness  and  concentrative  power,  the  germs  of 
broader  and  maturer  conceptions  than  itself.  These 
have  always  been  apparent  in  efforts,  more  or  less 
successful,  to  escape  the  limitations  which  as  dogma 
it  affirms.  The  time  has  come  when  these  efforts  • 
have  learned  their  own  significance,  and  resulted  in 
an  idea  of  incarnation,  consistent  with  Universal 
Religion. 

To  all  such  exclusive  forms  of  the  idea  succeeds  the 
nobler  faith  that  incarnation  is  the  permanent  fact  of 
human  nature,  and  comes  into  special  view  wherever 
beautiful  and  beneficent  lives  are  lived,  or  thought  is 
uttered,  in  earnest  accord  with  its  universal  laws; 
and  that  the  "saving"  power,  which  is  neither  more 
nor  less  than  the  educating,  humanizing  power,  and 
coincident  with  culture,  is,  as  power  of  God,  one  and 
the  same  thing  in  them  all.  Whenever  any  part  of 
the  world,  spiritual  or  material,  is  redeemed  to  its 
natural  and  so  divine  uses,  there  God,  as  man,  becomes 
Saviour.  And  who  shall  fathom  how  much  of  this  there 
has  been  in  past  human  lives,  or  how  much  there  is 
in  present  ones? 

The  conception  of  this  movement  comes  to  absorb 
into  its  unity,  one  by  one,  the  manifold  stages  of 
human  progress ;  and  we  apprehend  deity  as  manifest 
in  each  age  under  such  forms  as  its  knowledge  of  life 
and  nature  have  enabled  it  to  recognize. 


INCARNATION.  489 

In  periods  when  a  sense  of  degeneracy  inevitably 
possessed  men,  and  they  turned  their  faces  The  Hindu 
backward  to  find  golden  ages  in  the  past,  ideal- 
because  there  was  as  yet  no  foothold  for  practical  con- 
struction through  the  intercourse  of  energetic  races  ; 
when  the  outward  world  therefore  repelled  them  as 
illusion,  and  refuge  in  the  inward  became  a  necessity, 
—  it  is  refreshing  to  find  the  belief  that  deity  becomes 
manifest  as  deliverer  whenever  maris  needs  require^ 
or  his  aspirations  and  devotions  enter  the  ever  open 
door  of  a  mystic  union  with  omnipotence. 

This  instant  access  to  the  best  was  not  through  all 
sainthood  and  heroism  only,  as  these  were  then  its  universal 
conceived  by  the  traditional  ideal.  In  the elcments- 
oneness  of  all  life,  Hindu  faith  beheld  everywhere  the 
Supreme  sacrificing  himself  for  all ; 1  "  through  de- 
votion "  taking  on  himself  the  whole  possibility  of 
human  misery  and  want.  Brahma  is  in  the  form 
of  every  element,  every  creature.  He  is  their  unity, 
and  it  is  his  sacrifice  that  consecrates  them  all. 

It  was  a  redeeming  element  of  Hindu  caste  itself, 
that  it  constituted  every  saint  an  incarnation  of  Brah- 
ma for  the  preservation  of  the  world,  in  virtue  of  his 
fulfilment  of  the  ideal  of  sainthood.  This  equal 
opportunity,  even  within  the  limits  of  a  hereditary 
class,  was  at  least  the  recognition  that  fresh  access  to 
union  with  deity  by  discipline  and  faith  could  never 
be  wholly  foreclosed.  Nor  was  any  past  form  of 
sainthood  regarded  as  in  permanent  possession  either 
of  supreme  and  final  virtue,  or  of  invincible  authority. 
Its  throne  was  held  provisionally,  and  liable  to  pass 
to   a    stronger  master  in   the   sphere    of   "  devotion." 

1  Sec  Sankara's  Commentary  on  the  Brihad  Upan.,  where  the  Brahmana  is  quoted  at 
length. 


490  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

This  democratic  element  in  Brahmanical  holiness  has 
already  attracted  our  interest.  Under  favoring  cir- 
cumstances, it  would  have  reconciled  incarnation  with 
liberty  and  progress.  Although  such  instincts  of 
growth  had  little  practical  opportunity,  and  cannot 
here  receive  the  living  meaning  which  a  more  en- 
ergetic civilization  would  put  into  them,  they  were 
nevertheless  not  wholly  a  dream.  Their  influence  is 
traceable  through  the  whole  course  of  Hindu  religious 
history. 

The  moral  defects  of  an  unrestrained  play  of  the 
idea  of  incarnation,  in  races  and  ages  of  imperfect 
culture,  are  obvious.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
very  limitations  of  this  idea  in  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness, its  confinement  to  a  single  historic  form,  severely 
simple  and  ethically  noble,  has  been  temporarily  of 
great  service  in  sobering  the  sensuous  imagination 
and  guiding  the  moral  sentiment  of  mankind.  Chris- 
tian mythology,  cautious  and  tame  beside  Hindu,  is 
proportionately  purer.  The  virtue  of  a  mythology, 
however,  considered  as  play  of  the  religious  imagina- 
tion, lies  not  only  in  ethical  purity,  but  in  freedom  and 
scope  also.  Full  justice  to  the  religious  nature  of 
man  will  recognize  both  these  sides,  and  find  germs  of 
permanent  service  in  both. 

As  representing  the  freedom  of  deity  to  assume 
Breadth  of  living  forms  of  manifestation,  Christian  my- 
lation.  thology  is  certainly  tame  beside  that  of  India. 
Its  Virgin  conceives  her  Child  through  the  miraculous 
overshadowing  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  the  wives  of 
Dasaratha  in  the  Ramayana  conceive  and  bear  sons 
who  are  gods,  simply  by  eating  sacrificial  food.  And 
Sita,  who  is  the  celestial  Lakshmi  in  human  form, 
arises  from  the  Earth  in  a  silver  vessel  turned  up  by 


INCARNATION.  49 1 

the  plough  in  clearing  .a  place  for  sacrifice ;  for  Sita 
is  the  furrow,  and  her  worship  as  wife  of  Rama,  the 
incarnate  preserver,  divinizes  the  bounteous  earth  and 
the  labors  that  redeem  it ;  as  her  separation  from  him, 
and  disappearance  in  the  arms  of  the  earth  itself, 
amidst  a  divine  flame  that  issues  from  the  cloven 
ground,  expresses  the  sowing  and  death  of  the  seed. 
In  similar  recognition  of  physical  uses,  the  gods  churn 
the  sea  of  milk,  throwing  into  it  every  kind  of  medi- 
cinal plant  that  grows ;  and  out  of  the  amrita  or  im- 
mortal food  that  comes  of  this  divine  toil  ascend 
goddesses  that  bless  mankind. 

Oriental  civilization  being  based  on  the  family,  we 
are  prepared  to  find  much  of  the  incarnation-lore  of 
India  centering  in  the  functions  and  destinies  of  kin- 
dred. These  may,  in  fact,  almost  be  said  to  consti- 
tute its  tragedy  and  triumph,  in  epos  and  drama  and 
sacred  song.  Strife  and  reconciliation,  duty  and  sacri- 
fice, penalty  and  reward,  find  their  divine  expression 
in  the  idealization  of  these  simple  relations.  And 
Kalidasa,  with  entire  simplicity,  describes  the  four 
sons  of  Raghu  shining  by  division  of  their  father's 
being,  as  justice,  use,  redemption,  and  love  descended 
from  heaven  to  become  incarnate  in  four  human  lives.1 

Rama,  as  incarnation  of  Vishnu  for  human  deliver- 
ance from  evil,  is  hailed  by  aged  saints,  who    vishnuas 

i      •  i  ii  Saviour ; 

die  gladly  when  their  eyes  have  seen  the  long  Rama. 
expected  One.2  He  supplants  all  the  older  gods,  who 
pour  on  their  heads  the  dust  that  is  under  his  feet.  He 
absorbs  all  their  powers  into  himself;  but  it  is  because 
he  represents  all  Junctions  and  demands  of  life.  He 
passes  through  every  phase  of  the  Hindu  sense  of  per- 
sonal duty.     He  fulfils  every  relation  recognized  in  the 

1  Raghicvansa,  X.  2  Ramay.,  III. 


492  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Oriental  ideal  of  service  and  of  command,  assuming 
in  succession  the  three  stages  of  student,  married,  and 
hermit  life.  He  suffers  all  injustice,  even  to  complete 
deprivation  of  his  natural  rights.  He  condescends  to 
wear  the  bark  dress,  and  to  dig  roots  with  a  spade, 
though  born  to  a  throne ;  and  this  through  obedience 
to  filial  love  and  duty,  that  a  father's  word  might  not 
be  made  void.  His  conviction  is  his  life  and  strength 
and  immortality.  He  brings  out  by  his  self-sacrifice  a 
soul  of  tenderness  and  magnanimity  in  his  relatives ; 
"overcomes  mankind  by  fidelity,  Brahmans  by  gen- 
erosity, preceptors  by  his  attention  to  duties,  and  all 
enemies  by  the  sword  and  bow."  His  forgiveness  of 
injury  is  not  less  perfect  than  his  power  to  punish 
it.  He  pays  funeral  honors  to  his  bitterest  foe.  He 
cherishes  no  anger  against  the  false  queen  who  has 
deprived  him  of  his  crown,  driven  him  into  exile,  and 
brought  his  father  to  untimely  death.  He  even  seeks 
excuses  for  her,  and  commends  her  to  the  care  of  his 
brother,  on  whom  she  has  forced  the  crown  that 
belonged  of  right  to  himself.  One  who  mourned 
excessively  for  a  lost  brother  he  admonishes  thus  :  — 

"  Man  must  not  be  carried  away  by  grief,  but  hasten  to  a  better 
mind.  Thou  hast  shed  tears  :  it  is  enough.  Necessity  is  lord  of 
the  world.  But  let  man  never  forget  the  good  on  which  he  should 
fix  his  eyes  ;  for  fate  embraces  in  its  movement  duty,  use,  and  joy. 
We  have  given  what  we  ought  to  grief:  now  let  us  do  what  is 
becoming." 

His  virtues  are  exaggerations,  and  conformed  to 
Oriental  ideals  and  motives ;  but,  whatever  its  faults, 
we  must  note,  as  the  special  nobility  of  this  poetic 
incarnation,  which  enters  profoundly  into  the  popular 
faith,  its  effort  to  embody  the  whole  duty,  at  once  of 

1  Ramay.,  IV. 


INCARNATION.  493 

a  king,  a  husband,  a  son,  a  brother,  a  hero,  a  saint,  a 
deliverer  of  mankind  from  moral  evil.  He  is  adored 
as  "protector  of  the  defenceless,  extending  mercy  to 
the  oppressed."1  Even  his  foe,  whom  he  is  obliged 
to  slay,  commits  his  son  to  his  care  in  perfect  trust, 
at  death.2  When  counselled  to  obtain  the  throne  by 
treachery,  he  replies  :  — 

"  Far  from  me  as  poison  be  a  gain,  even  were  it  of  the  throne  of 
heaven,  which  is  obtained  by  the  iniquity  of  destroying  a  friend." 

A  victor  over  his  enemies  by  his  superhuman  powers, 
he  generously  ascribes  his  success  to  his  companions 
in  arms. 

Rama's  absolute  sacrifice  of  his  own  interests  to  his 
father's  authority  is  an  exaltation  of  the  patriarchal 
ideal  above  the  Brahmanical.  Social  relations  are 
here  shown  to  be  amenable  to  a  higher  law  than  caste. 
Here,  as  Michelet  has  enthusiastically  said,  "is  a  new 
revelation  ;  God  incarnate  in  a  non-Brahmanic  caste  ; 
the  ideal  of  holiness  transferred  to  a  Kshattriya ;  as 
later,  in  Europe,  St.  Louis,  a  warrior,  a  king,  becomes 
the  spiritual  ideal,  of  whom  a  contemporary  exclaims, 
'O  holy  layman,  whose  deeds  the  priests  should 
emulate  ! '" 3 

Rama  is  indeed  the  universality  of  the  divine  life. 
The  arrow  with  which  he  slays  the  Satan  of  the  epic, 
Ravana,  is  "made  from  the  spirit  of  all  the  gods." 
He  is  intensely  human.  Overwhelmed  by  his  afflic- 
tions, he  is  consoled  by  the  gods.  "  Having  appeared 
on  earth  in  human  form,  his  actions  must  accord  with 
those  of  human  beings."  Human  he  is  to  the  point 
of  yielding  to  temptations  now  and  then  for  the  mo- 


1  Adkyatma  Ramay.  (the  Vaishnava  version  of  the  epic).     Wheeler,  II.  p.  308,  404. 

2  Ram&y.,  IV.  8  Bible  de  VHumaniti,  p.  52. 


494  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

ment.  Thus  he  puts  away  Sita  after  all  her  fidelity, 
merely  because  her  virtue  had  been  exposed  to  peril 
while  in  the  hands  of  her  demon  ravisher,  and  suffers 
her  to  enter  the  fire  to  prove  her  innocence  ;  a  dra- 
matic invention,  to  bring  out  the  national  sensitiveness 
in  regard  to  female  chastity,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
affords  Rama  the  opportunity  of  naively  reproaching 
himself  for  injustice  to  her,  and  so  makes  his  very 
weakness  inspire  new  affection,  and  associate  him 
with  human  and  even  childish  experience. 

"  His  face  became  like  the  moon  in  the  month  of  snows  :  if  he 
had  sent  his  queen  from  his  palace  for  fear  of  evil  speech,  he  had 
not  been  able  to  banish  her  from  his  heait."1 

There  is  at  least  a  democratic  touch  in  this  feature 
of  the  story.  He  explains  the  act  by  saying,  "  I  knew 
she  was  true  ;  but  I  put  her  to  the  test  lest  the  people 
should  blame  me  "  for  lack  of  respect  for  the  purity 
of  wifehood.  So  when  in  irritation  he  slays  a  Sudra, 
the  victim  is  transported  in  a  beautiful  form  to  para- 
dise.2 Rama  at  last  ascends  to  heaven  from  the  banks 
of  the  Sarayu,  resuming  his  divine  essence,  amidst  all 
holy  persons,  revelations,  powers,  elements,  in  sight 
of  all  the  people  and  even  the  lower  animals.  In  the 
heavens  appear  all  the  gods,  in  infinite  splendor, 
amidst  fragrant  winds  and  rain  of  flowers.  As  Rama 
enters  the  sacred  waters,  Brahma  from  the  sky  pro- 
nounces the  words  :  — 

"  Approach,  O  Vishnu  !  enter  thine  own  body,  the  eternal  ether. 
Thou  art  the  abode  of  the  worlds."3 

By  the  blessing  of  Rama's  name  and  through 
Deliverance  previous  faith  in  him,  all  sins,  according  to 
from  sin.      Vaishnava  belief,   are   remitted  ;' and  "every 

1  Ragkuvansa,*KIV.  2  Adky.  Ramay.  (Wheeler,  p.  393). 

8  Ramay.,  VII. 


INCARNATION.  495 

one,  whatever  his  iniquities,  whether  a  Brahman  or  a 
Chandala,  a  king,  or  a  beggar,  who  shall  at  death 
pronounce  this  name  with  sincere  worship,  shall  be 
forgiven."  The  gods,  conversing  together  of  the  re- 
pentance and  restoration,  in  this  way,  of  an  evil  spirit 
who  had  sought  to  compass  the  ruin  of  Rama,  say  :  — 

"  Behold  how  this  sinner  has  been  saved  !  Such  is  the  benevo- 
lence of  Rama.  What  good  actions  has  this  demon  performed  that 
he  could  deserve  such  happiness  ?  He  has,  from  having  resigned 
his  life  at  Rama's  feet  and  beholding  him,  been  absorbed  into  him."  ' 

Hindu  theology  understands  even  better  than  Chris- 
tian how  to  shift  off  the  burden  of  an  evil  conscience, 
by  trust  in  vicarious  merits.  This  offence  against  the 
moral  laws  in  either  case  we  are  not  commending  to 
an  enlightened  age.  Yet  in  its  origin  the  idea  has 
very  plain  relation  to  the  sense  of  an  omnipotent 
power  and  purpose  to  relieve  from  crushing  burdens 
of  moral  and  spiritual  penalty.  In  the  expression  of 
absoluteness  in  divine  good-will,  no  form  of  incarna- 
tion has  attempted  so  wide  a  scope  as  the  Rama  of 
this  epic  mythology,  whose  worst  enemies,  while  they 
are  punished,  after  Hindu  fashion,  with  much  outlay 
of  terrific  penalty,  are  yet  all  taken  up  into  heaven  at 
last,  through  such  force  of  good  as  may  have  once 
been  in  them,  and  the  all-embracing  benignity  and 
mercy  of  the  god. 

These  liberal  and  benignant  elements  are  repro- 
duced in  the  modern  Vaishnava  sects,  founded 

Democratic 

on  the  worship  of   Rama  :    such  as  those  of  and  humane 
Ramananda  and  Kabir,  of  Rai-Das  and  Dadu, eement 
of  which  further  notice  will  be  taken  hereafter.     These 
teachers  were  for  the  most  part  men  of   the  lowest 

1  Adhy   Ramay-,  p  287. 


496  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

castes  ;  and  the  mythology  that  has  already  gathered 
about  their  names  centres  in  the  democratic  reaction 
against  caste  and  ecclesiastical  authority  which  has 
gone  steadily  on  throughout  Hindu  history.  Of  this 
element  Vishnu,  as  Rama,  is  the  constant  represen- 
tative. 

The  relation  of  this  humanitarian  spirit  to  the 
worship  of  Rama  is  illustrated  by  the  charters  of  land 
granted  by  the  later  Hindu  kings,  and  written  on 
metallic  tablets,  which  are  constantly  coming  to  light. 
Their  stereotyped  phrase  quotes  Rama  as  declaring 
that  "  to  give  away  land  is  to  cross  oceans  of  sin ; 
while  to  resume  or  reappropriate  it  is  to  fall  back  into 
hells  of  transmigration." 

The  incarnation  of  Vishnu  as  Krishna  is  of  a  more 
complex  character,  and   covers  a  still  larger 

Krishna.  c  .  .  . 

ground  of  historic  relation  ;  embracing  in  the 
diversity  of  its  phases  the  whole  compass  of  Hindu  ex- 
perience. In  Krishna  every  popular  and  every  specula- 
tive ideal,  every  instinct  and  every  conviction  that  sought 
religious  sanction,  has  found  its  embodiment ;  each  in 
turn  assuming  this  traditionally  consecrated  name.  In 
its  service  therefore,  as  well  as  in  its  sound,  the  name 
corresponds  with  that  of  Christ  in  the  religious  histoiy 
of  the  Western  nations.  It  has  represented  every  stage 
of  progress,  every  degree  of  enlightenment,  or  of  the 
lack  of  it,  in  Hindu  history.  It  is  the  divinization  of 
desire  and  hope  from  lowest  to  highest  level,  the  sport 
of  the  superstitious  fancy  and  of  the  devout  imagina- 
tion alike.  They  have  made  it  mean  whatever  they 
would.  It  is  vain  therefore  to  look  for  moral  or  spec- 
ulative unity  in  what  is  plainly  but  a  common  name 
for  the  whole  of  Hindu  aspiration,  exclusive  only  of 
its  most  rationalistic  side ;  a  thread  by  which  it  has 


INCARNATION.  497 

given  some  semblance  of  continuity  to  its  past.  In 
this  respect  it  does  not  differ  from  the  endless  dis- 
cordance of  high  and  low  ideals,  which  Christianity, 
through  its  ages  of  sectarian  strife,  has  comprehended 
under  the  name  of  Christ,  reaching  back  indeed 
through  the  earliest  records  of  his  life.  If  all  these 
had  at  some  epoch  been  brought  together  into  one 
vast  Christian  Bible,  in  which  the  Church  had  ever 
since  been  seeking  by  repeated  elaborations  and  mys- 
tical reinterpretations  to  preserve  the  continuity  of  its 
faith,  through  the  one  term  common  to  the  whole, — 
the  name  of  Christ,  —  it  would  be  analogous  to  what 
has  happened  in  this  Krishna-worship  of  the  Hindus. 
An  indefinite  expansion  of  the  name  of  Christ,  to 
cover  all  stages  and  forms  of  recognized  faith,  and  all 
sacred  records  on  which  they  rest,  is  really  the  fact  of 
Christian  history,  although  the  whole  process  is  not 
concentrated  in  such  a  Bible  as  has  been  suggested. 
So  true  is  this,  that  the  name  has  long  since  ceased 
to  be  of  service  for  conveying  an  idea  of  the  actual 
religious  belief  of  its  confessors. 

Now  the  Mahabharata  is  for  the  Hindu  masses  a 
Bible  somewhat  of  this  description,  though  The Krishna 
by  no  means  exclusively  in  honor  of  Krishna.  Eibles- 
It  is  an  immense  ocean,  into  which  almost  every  stream 
of  Hindu  faith  and  feeling  has  by  one  path  or  another 
found  its  way.  Age  after  age,  barbarous,  heroic,  or 
ecclesiastical,  has  contributed  its  popular  traditions,  its 
religious  speculations,  its  morality  and  its  faith,  to 
swell  this  colossal  epic ;  and  it  embodies,  on  a  pro- 
digious scale,  every  element  of  dramatic,  intellectual, 
and  spiritual,  as  well  as  popular  and  national  interest 
familiar  to  the  Hindu  mind.  It  has  probably  under- 
gone frequent  readjustments  to  fresh  experience  under 

32 


498  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  influence  of  the  religious  classes.  From  time  to 
time  fresh  fragments  of  ethics  and  philosophy  have 
been  interpolated,  often  in  the  strangest  context :  the 
profoundest  spirituality  flows  from  the  lips  of  dying 
barbarians,  and  metaphysics  are  sounded  to  their 
depths  in  the  intervals  of  internecine  strife. 

The  Bhagavata  Purana1  is  another  vast  body  of 
incarnation  myths  and  traditions,  more  especially  de- 
voted to  the  worship  of  Krishna,  whose  manifold 
births  and  forms  are  traced  through  all  cosmogony, 
theology,  philosophy,  and  who  here  becomes  the 
universal  absorbent  and  solvent  of  traditional  beliefs. 
Both  Epic  and  Purana  are  the  free  play  of  Hindu 
imagination  and  fancy,  and  turn  past,  present,  and 
future  into  song.  They  connect  the  national  life  with 
the  simple  ages  of  minstrelsy,  purporting  to  come 
from  the  lips  of  bards. 

The  Krishna  of  the  Epos  might  seem  to  be  imperfect- 
Krishna  my- ty  defined  as  an  incarnation,  to  the  religious 
thoiogy.  sense.  He  seems  sometimes  to  be  man,  some- 
times God  of  gods.  At  one  time  his  divinity  is  denied, 
at  another  he  seems  unaware  of  it.  He  is  opposed, 
slighted,  assailed,  wounded.  Even  as  incarnation,  he 
is  but  a  hair  from  Vishnu's  body.  But  in  the  Pura- 
nas,  he  is  the  Supreme  alone.2  He  is  Vasudeva,  God 
with  the  world,  in  all  beings,  and  without  appeal. 
He  combines  all  exalted  appellatives  and  powers,  and 
many  that  we  should  hold  as  quite  other  than  exalted. 
But  through  all  incongruities  the  religious  interest 
is  held  fast  to  the  person  of  Krishna,  as  central  incar- 
nation of  protecting  and  retributive  deity,  as  well  as 


1  Translated  by  Eugene  Bumouf. 

2  In  the  Brahma  Vaivartta,  he  is  adored  by  all  the  gods.     See  Wilson's  analysis  in 
Essays  on  Sansk.  Lit.,  I.  94. 


INCARNATION.  499 

the  embodiment  of  ideals  and  delights  essentially 
human.  That  much  of  personal  biography  is  to  be 
discerned  through  this  immeasurable  haze  of  fable  is 
improbable  enough.  It  seems  quite  as  impracticable 
to  construct  a  positive  basis  or  nucleus  of  historical 
fact  out  of  the  mythology  of  the  cowherd  boy,  or  the 
Kshattriya  hero,  as  out  of  the  supernaturalism  of  the 
god.  And  certainly  the  moral  value  of  the  Krishna 
faith  is  in  no  degree  determinable  by  tracing  it  back, 
upon- mythical  authority,  to  somebody  who  was  "  orig- 
inally a  mere  cowherd,  stealing  butter  and  performing 
similar  pranks  when  a  boy,  and  rendering  himself 
famous  by  his  amours  when  a  man  "  ! 1 

The  democratic  character  of  this  faith  in  its  original 
form  has  already  been  inferred 2  from  the  relation  of 
the  name  Krishna  (or  the  black)  to  the  color  of  the 
lowest  caste  and  of  the  aboriginal  races  of  India.  Its 
suggestions  of  an  ancient  sense  of  brotherhood,  and 
of  a  powerful  influence  on  Aryan  faith  from  the  side 
of  conquered  or  enslaved  tribes,  as  well  as  the  poetic 
justice  of  which  this  worship  of  the  black  by  the 
white  is  a  historic  landmark,  seem  to  me  very  im- 
pressive. 

The  idyllic  legends  of  the  Krishna-Govinda  (or 
cowherd),  his  boyish  pranks,  his  miraculous  feats,  and 
amours  among  the  cowherdesses,  are  evidently  based 
on  the  folklore  of  rude  country  tribes,  like  those  of 
the  patriarchal  Hebrew  age.  Their  grotesque  humor 
reminds  us  of  the  miracle  plays  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in 
which  the  New  Testament  myths,  grown  too  familiar 
to  be  venerated,  were  freely  handled  for  the  general 
amusement ;  and  this  wild  jungle  of  tropic  fable  has 
far   more   than   the    animal   exuberance   and  lawless 

1  Wheeler's  Hist,  of  India.  2  See  chapter  on  the  BJuigavadgita.. 


500  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

sportiveness  of  the  "Arabian  Nights."  Doubtless  the 
coarseness  of  its  natural  meaning  was  spiritualized 
away  by  the  later,  more  enlightened,  Krishna-wor- 
shippers,1 just  as  the  barbarities  and  sensualities  of 
the  older  Bible  legends  have  been  by  later  Jews  and 
Christians. 

But  in  the  main  body  of  the  epos,  Krishna  assumes 
,,   ,      a  nobler  function.     Through  all  the  fratricidal 

Noble  nine-  ° 

tionsof  horrors  of  the  great  war  between  kindred 
Krishna.  p£n(jus  ancj  Kurus,  the  most  tragic  tale* ever 
told  in  song,  he  enacts  the  part  of  mediator  and  con- 
soler :  he  is  not  a  warrior,  but  a  peace-maker ;  inter- 
feres in  the  strife  purely  in  the  interest  of  justice,  and 
mourns  with  the  love  of  a  brother  over  the  fearful 
consummation  of  evil-doing  which  all  his  efforts  fail  to 
prevent.  Though  a  Kshattriya  in  his  human  form,  and 
though  other  passages  relate  his  tremendous  exploits 
in  destroying  the  wicked,  he  refuses  to  fight  in  this 
unnatural  war ;  will  be  only  Arjuna's  charioteer,  on 
the  just  side,  if  war  must  be  ;  and  Arjuna  chooses  his 
presence,  as  of  itself  more  than  armies,  and  as  fullest 
assurance  of  victory.  Though  able  to  compel  obe- 
dience, he  respects  the  freedom  of  those  who  choose 
to  disregard  his  wise  and  humane  counsels,  while  he 
strives  to  compose  the  bitter  feud  between  brothers. 
Warned  that  the  attempt  would  be  useless,  he  says  :  — 

"  To  deliver  the  world  from  all  this  preparation  for  strife  is  the 
highest  of  duties  ;  and  it  is  right  to  give  all  one's  efforts  to  such  a 
duty,  whether  they  succeed  or  fail." 

Sent  to  the  hostile  Kuru  princes  with  this  intent,  he 
is  received  with  divine  honors,  in  festival  raiment,  with 
offerings  of  sandal-wood    and  perfume ;    carpets  are 

1  Bh&gav.  Puratia,  X. 


INCARNATION.  501 

strewn  in  his  path,  and  the  king  goes  out  on  foot  to 
meet  him.  Yet  his  advice  is  rejected,  and  his  person 
threatened.  And  when  his  hopes  that  kindredship 
would  have  enabled  him  to  save  the  infatuated  Kura- 
vas  from  destruction  are  proved  vain  ;  when  his  tender 
and  noble  appeals,  and  his  prophecies  of  coming  deso- 
lation, alike  fail,  he  returns  sorrowing,  after  embracing 
the  noblest  of  these  fated  ones,  with  tears  over  the 
bitter  future  that  must  come  to  them  all. 

When  the  multitude  of  Brahmans  crave  of  him  for- 
giveness for  sin,  he  answers,  tr  If  your  hearts  be  pure 
and  single  before  God,  there  is  hope  of  forgiveness 
from  Him."  He  consoles  Arjuna  for  the  loss  of  his 
son,  saying :  "  His  fame  will  endure  for  ever,  and  it 
might  be  said  that  he  is  still  alive.  Children,  like 
worldly  goods,  are  given  to  us  by  God ;  and  he  can 
resume  them  at  his  pleasure." 

He  comforts  a  woman  for  a  similar  bereavement  by 
reminding  her  "how  happy  a  mother  should  be  whose 
son  has  met  so  glorious  a  destiny."  At  the  end  of  the 
war  he  bids  the  victors  administer  justice  to  all  the 
oppressed,  and  promises  them  reward  for  their  good 
deeds  in  another  life. 

After  the  doom  has  fallen  upon  his  people,  and  his 
brothers  and  companions  have  perished,  as  he  sits 
alone  in  his  sorrow  in  the  forest,  he  is  fatally  wounded 
by  a  careless  hunter,  whose  remorse  he  seeks  to  allay 
in  the  hour  of  his  own  death,  saying,  "  Go  thy  way  : 
thine  is  not  the  blame."  We  should  not  expect  that 
very  exalted  moral  standards  would  be  found  inter- 
woven with  a  movement  of  warfare  so  brutal  and 
ferocious  as  that  of  the  Mahabharata,  where  the  world 
seems  given  over  to  the  nemesis  of  wrathful  and  de- 
structive   passions ;    yet    it    really  abounds   in  noble 


502  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

reconciliations,  in  heroic  self-disciplines,  in  the  loyal- 
ties of  tender  affection.  And  in  this  epic  Krishna  is,  in 
his  relations  to  the  Pandu  war,  a  redeeming  presence 
of  justice,  magnanimity,  and  mercy,  which,  spite  of 
all  the  monstrosities  of  supernaturalism,  flows  in  a 
golden  thread  of  providential  purport  through  the 
retributive  woof  of  wrong  and  pain. 

This  ideal  incarnation  aspires,  therefore,  to  include 
„    . .        all  nature  and  life,  and  to  divinize  all  human 

Participa- 
tion in  the    duty  by  the  direct  participation  of  deity  in  its 

whole  of  life.  •  r   1  i  i 

manifold  spheres. 

"  Priest,  teacher,  marriageable  man,  householder,  and  beloved 
companion,  because  he  is  all  this,  therefore  has  Krishna  been  hon- 
ored. Generosity,  ability,  sacred  wisdom,  heroism,  humility,  splen- 
dor, endurance,  cheerfulness,  joyousness,  exist  constantly  in  this 
unfailing  one.  It  is  Krishna  who  is  the  origin  and  end  of  all  the 
worlds.  All  this  universe  comes  into  being  through  him,  the 
eternal  Maker,  transcending  all  beings.  And  he  enlightens  and 
gladdens  the  assembly,  as  a  sunless  place  would  be  cheered  by  the 
sun,  or  a  windless  spot  by  the  wind."  ' 

Krishna,  in  short,  represented  the  genial  and  happy 
sense  of  unity  for  all  finite  relations  with  the  infinite 
and  eternal.  The  universality  of  the  religious  instinct, 
shown  in  this  combination  of  the  cosmical  with  the 
manifold  human  in  one  divine  personality,  is  an  ele- 
ment of  very  great  interest. 

In  absorbing  the  universe  into  their  divinity,  the 
Krishna  of  Eastern,  and  the  Christ  of  Western  faith 
are  in  their  diverse  ways  analogous.  The  Christian 
incarnation,  however,  while  superior  in  spiritual  ele- 
vation, does  not  attempt  to  represent  that  direct  per- 
sonal experience  of  actual  social  functions  which 
makes  the  special  interest  of  geniality  and  breadth  in 
Krishna.     Resting  its  claims  on  actual  history,  not  on 

»  Mahabh.,  VI. 


INCARNATION.  503 

mythical  license,  it  has  to  recognize  its  own  limits  in 
the  biographical  fact,  that  Jesus  was  eminently  indi- 
vidualist in  his  ideal,  isolated  in  his  personal  relations, 
and  negative  in  many  of  his  precepts  and  beliefs  to- 
wards social  and  public  interests  ;  nor  has  it  ever  been 
able  to  free  itself  from  the  positive  limitations  of  its 
human  scope,  which  belong  to  that  historical  form  in 
which  it  still  centres.  It  is  an  old  proverb  that  "  no 
man  is  so  great  or  wise  as  all  mankind." 

I  do  not  forget  that  the  Christ  has  been  believed  to 
be  mystically  formed  within  all  true  believers,  -what- 
everfunctions  they  may  fulfil.  But  this  faith  does  not 
exalt  the  functions  themselves,  as  actual  human  rela- 
tions, with  the  dignity  of  divine  personal  participation 
in  them.  It  has  ever  been  apt  to  mark,  instead,  a  with- 
drawal from  the  secular  life  into  an  interior  pietistic 
sphere.  Our  modern  ideal  does  indeed  claim  such 
participation,  in  a  real  sense,  for  all  becoming  human 
relations,  all  the  "works  and  days"  of  our  life.  If 
God  is  manifest  anywhere  for  us,  it  is  in  these.  But 
such  faith  rests  on  that  large  respect  for  life,  which 
is  of  recent  origin.  It  could  hardly  have  derived  its 
sanctions  from  a  personal  incarnation,  whose  worship- 
per would  be  shocked  to  conceive  him  as  having  been 
a  father,  a  husband,  a  lover,  a  householder,  a  genial 
associate,  or  a  faithful  citizen,  accepting  the  real  emer- 
gencies of  society,  and  bearing  his  part  in  them.  We 
have  seen  that  such  complete  union  of  deity  with  life 
is  hinted  in  the  childish  mythology  of  the  Krishna 
faith.  The  maturer  form  of  this  belief  which  mankind 
has  now  reached  is  due  not  only  to  purifying  limi- 
tations by  the  Christian  ideal,  but  to  the  secular 
energy,  science,  and  respect  for  practical  uses,  nat- 
ural to  the  Western  races. 


504  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  present  purpose  to  follow  the 
Krishna  as  course  of  Krishna-worship  into  the  wilderness 
unity  of  hu-0f  ^e  jater  puranas,  where  its  pathless  tangle 

man  and  '  jr  o 

divine.  of  mythology  and  speculation  reflects  the 
whole  inner  world  of  Hindu  character,  at  its  best 
and  at  its  worst.  It  is  sufficient  to  refer  here  to  the 
completeness  with  which  it  expresses  the  unity  of  the 
divine  and  the  human  in  the  speculative  passages  of 
the  Mahabharata,  of  which  the  Bhagavadgita  is  the 
noblest  illustration.  As  a  specimen  of  these,  I  quote 
the  words  ascribed  to  Brahma  in  witness  of  the  su- 
premacy of  this  later  divinity,  who  has  supplanted 
him,  as  Christ  has  supplanted  Jove  and  Jehovah  in 
the  West :  — 

"  That  Being  wh'o  is  Supreme,  who  is  to  be,  who  is  the  soul  of 
all  beings,  and  the  Lord,  it  is  with  Him  that  I  have  been  conversing, 
O  deities  !  He  of  whom  I,  Brahma,  master  of  the  whole  world,  am 
the  son,  is  by  you  to  be  adored.  This  Being  is  the  highest  mys- 
tery, the  highest  sphere,  the  highest  Brahma,  the  highest  glory. 
He  is  the  undecaying,  the  undiscernible,  the  eternal.  He  is  called 
Purusha  [personal  spirit].  He  is  hymned  and  is  not  known.  He 
is  celebrated  as  highest  truth,  power,  joy."  l 

But  it  is  as  continually  reborn  for  the  restoration  of 
significance  mankind,  that  Krishna  hints  of  largest  spirit- 
vistou  ua^  meamng«  In  this  he  represents  Vishnu, 
Avataras.  who,  as  perpetual  Saviour,  embodies  in  the 
universality  of  his  incarnation  the  religious  postulate 
of  the  unity  of  all  life.  The  avataras  of  Vishnu  pass 
through  all  ages  of  time  as  well  as  all  grades  of  exist- 
ence ;  the  lowest  grade  being  referred  to  the  earliest 
epoch  in  tirrfe,  the  highest  to  the  present  and  future. 
He  is  Fish,  Tortoise,  Boar,  Man  Lion,  Dwarf,  Soldier, 
Brahman,  Krishna,  and  finally  the  Kalki  or  Judge  at 

1  Mahabharata,  B   VI. 


INCARNATION.  505 

the  last  day.  He  is  even  recognized,  by  the  popular 
faith,  in  the  humane,  all-loving  Buddha.  No  age,  no 
form,  exhausted  this  ever-present  redeemer;  ever 
waiting  at  the  doors ;  ever  reappearing  with  fresh 
underived  forces  and  higher  embodiment,  through  the 
asons  of  an  imagination,  to  which  a  thousand  years 
were  but  a  day.  The  moral  symbol  also  shines 
through  this  as  it  shines  through  the  poetic  mythology 
of  incarnation  in  all  religions.  These  avatdras  are 
all  for  what  were  regarded  as  humane,  remedial,  or 
morally  judicial  ends. 

"There  is  nothing  thou  hast  not  already  in  thyself:  and  the 
cause  of  all  thy  births  is  nothing  else  than  thy  love  for  the  world."  ' 

Thus  as  the  Dwarf,  Vishnu  redeems  the  whole  earth 
from  the  impieties  that  have  mastered  it.  The  gods 
being  allowed  by  their  enemies  only  so  much  as  this 
dwarf  could  cover  when  lying  down,  the  whole  earth 
is  overspread  by  his  miraculous  expansion  :  it  is  thus 
shown  to  be  an  altar  for  sacrifice,  and  won  for  the  true 
worshipper.2  The  highest  hidden  in  the  lowest,  deity 
in  the  most  despised,  —  this  is  the  mystery  of  moral 
power.  And  always  around  this  plays  the  mythologic 
faculty.  The  dwarf's  three  miraculous  paces  that 
span  all  the  worlds,  and  win  them  for  the  good ;  3  the 
wisps  of  straw  in  a  saint's  peaceful  hand  that  discomfit 
the  hosts  of  a  self-idolatrous  king ; 4  the  two  mere 
hairs,  black  and  white,  from  Vishnu's  body,  incarnated 
to  remove  the  burdens  and  sufferings  of  the  earth ;  5 
the  human  form,  alone  of  all  possible  ones  forgotten  in 

1  Kalidasa/s  Raghuvansa,  X.  So  the  Harivansa  distinctly  affirms  that  they  are  all  for 
the  good  of  the  world  (CXXIX.  Langlois's  Transl.,  II.  26). 

2  Satapatha-Brahniatta- 

3  See  MinVs  Sansk.  -Texts,  IV.  ii.  4 ;  Bhagav.  Purana,  VIII.  20. 

4  Muir,  ibid.  5 ;  Mahabh.,  V.  5  Vishnu  Purana. 


506  religious  philosophy. 

contempt  by  the  demon  Ravana  (who  had  obtained 
the  boon  that  he  should  be  slain  by  no  being  he  should 
name) ,  becoming  thereby  the  one  guise  under  which 
Vishnu  can  enter  the  world  to  deliver  it  from  his 
power  ;  l  —  these  and  many  other  similarly  suggestive 
fancies  in  the  incarnation-lore  of  India  are  the  child's 
play  of  that  moral  instinct  which  discerns  strength  in 
weakness.  God  felt  in  the  atom  makes  the  whole 
world  divine. 

But  it  is  as  Krishna,  the  god-man  of  the  Bhagavad- 
gita,  that  Vishnu  speaks  the  grand  affirmation  which 
really  lifts  this  Oriental  faith  in  divine  presence  into 
universality :  — 

"  Although  I  am  in  my  own  nature  incapable  of  birth  or  death, 
and  lord  of  all  created  things,  yet  as  often  as  vice  prevails  over 
virtue,  so  often  I  become  manifested,  to  protect  the  good,  to  punish 
the  evil.     I  am  present  in  every  age  to  establish  right." 2 

In  truth,  all  the  great  Hindu  reformers,  as  they 
came  in  turn,  —  Kapila,  Buddha,  Sankara  Acharya, 
Chaitanya  the  Vaishnava  teacher,  and  the  rest,  —  have 
been  held  to  be  incarnations  of  Vishnu  the  preserving 
God.  Ever  on  the  serpent  whose  venom  is  destruction 
reposes  Vishnu,  as  if  to  guarantee  that  those  terrible 
coils  are  folded  beneath  him  in  lowly  subjection ;  and 
"  on  the  thousand-hooded  heads  the  sign  of  good  for- 
tune is  written." 

And  so  through  dream  and  superstition  and  childish 
fancy,  as  well  as  thoughtful  meditation,  shines  more  or 
less  clearly  the  faith  that  God  abides  in  the  world, 
and  that  moral  evil  itself  enforces  the  assurance  of 
infinite  restoring  love. 

But   have  we   not  here  overlooked  the   difference 

1  Ramayana,  I.  2  Bliag.  Gita,  ch.  iv. 


INCARNATION.  507 

between  real  incarnation,  and  that  which  is  mytho- 
logical only  ?     On  this  point  it  is  worth  our       ical 
while  to  consider  to  what  extent  the  difference  and  "real" 
itself  is  real,  and  how  far  it  has  bearing  on  the  mcarnatlon- 
substance  of  religion. 

More  or  less  of  mythology  must  always  invest  all 
belief  in  special  incarnations.  When  the  religious 
imagination  finds  a  point  of  attachment  for  such  a 
belief,  it  pays  indeed  some  regard  to  historical  and 
biographical  fact,  accepting  its  influence  for  a  time. 
Yet  it  uses  this  positive  element  very  freely  in  the 
main,  and  more  so  continually  to  serve  its  own  desire 
and  need.  And  it  is  impossible  that  the  past  should 
be  served  otherwise.  No  historical  person  can  contain 
all  that  the  aspiration  to  find  the  infinite  in  human 
life  really  means.1  Having  this  scope,  incarnation, 
as  an  idea,  has  no  dependence  on  biographical  facts, 
however  it  may  limit  itself  for  a  time  by  centering  in 
them.  And  so  when  the  facts  are  positively  known, 
or  when  the  divinized  person  is  disclosed  and  classi- 
fied, it  simply  takes  new  flight,  winged  with  its  new 
meanings,  finding  fresh  expressions  for  that  which  can, 
by  its  very  definition,  accept  no  form  as  final.  This 
result  is  inevitable  ;  as  true  of  Jesus  as  of  Gotama  ;  as 
true  of  incarnation,  claimed  for  a  real  personage,  as 
of  that  which,  like  the  avataras  of  Vishnu,  is  purely 
ideal  and  mythological. 

The  "  reality  "  of  God  in  Man  cannot  be  confined 
within  any  definite  person,  whether  historical  or  my- 
thological. It  covers  all  ideals,  whether  of  thought 
or  of  life.  But  it  points  forward  to  far  more  than 
these,  as  yet  unrevealed  in  the  depths  of  human  nature. 

1  This  is,  as  I  have  said,  recognized  in  Babism,  which  affirms  eighteen  personal  manifes- 
tations of  God  in  history,  and  looks  forward  to  a  future  Bab. 


508  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

To  its  infinite  promise,  history  and  rrrythology,  imagi- 
nation and  fact,  faith  and  conduct,  all  lead  the  way. 

Whether  the  faith  in  a  special  incarnation  has  for 
its  object  a  mythical  or  a  historical  person,  the  effect  is 
substantially  the  same.  To  their  respective  worship- 
pers, both  the  one  and  the  other  are  equally  real,  and 
even  equally  historical.  Equally  valid,  too,  for  the 
soul  is  her  own  ideal,  whether  its  realization  can  be 
shown  past  dispute  to  have  actually  come  to  pass  or 
not.     For  her  experience,  at  least,  it  is  actual. 

It  is  in  the  ideal  itself  that  value  inheres,  not  in  its 
Rights  of  having  a  historical  type  or  source.  It  cannot 
the  ideal      ^e    made    dependent    on    sanctions    from   the 

over  the  his-  r 

toricai.  actual  world,  since  its  free  desire  is  the  very 
power  by  which  alone  the  actual  is  lifted  into  a  step 
of  progress.  In  other  words,  it  is  only  through  the 
freedom  of  the  ideal  from  all  definitive  historical  times 
and  persons,  that  incarnation,  which  as  manifestation 
of  the  Infinite  can  only  consist  in  endless  progress, 
can  be  realized  at  all. 

A  grand  historical  figure  has  always  its  value  as 
element  of  human  dignity,  and  aid  to  human  growth ; 
but  it  must  inevitably  be  brought  to  the  impartial  tests 
of  that  Spirit  which  cannot  be  exhausted  nor  confined. 
And  it  is  the  Idea  which  sways  a  civilization,  however 
expressed,  that  proves  how  far  it  has  really  incarnated 
the  divine ;  while  the  question  whether  it  has  a  theo- 
logical faith  in  some  God-man,  which  claims  to  rest  on 
historical  fact,  is  one  of  minor  importance. 

That  Jesus  was  a  historical  person,  and  Krishna 
but  a  mythological  ideal,  if  that  be  so,  does  not  of 
itself  make  the  Christian  idea  of  incarnation  more 
"real,"  more  valid,  more  enduring  than  the  Hindu. 
Krishna,  for  the  Hindu,  is  as  real  to  that  sense  of  the 


INCARNATION.  509 

divine  to  which  incarnation  must  ever  appeal,  as  if  he 
had  actually  lived,  instead  of  originating  in  the  relig- 
ious imagination  and  faith  of  his  worshippers. 

Thus  it  would  be  vain  to  present  the  "  historical 
evidences  of  Christianity  "  to  the  Hindu  mind,  in  order 
to  prove  its  exclusive  incarnation-dogma,  by  showing 
Jesus  to  have  been  a  fact  of  history,  while  Krishna 
was  only  a  myth.  Were  these  evidences  ever  so 
strong,  they  would  be  to  little  purpose  :  since  the  cir- 
cumstance that  an  ideal  had  once  actually  a  form  in  a 
personal  life  would  carry  no  stronger  proof  of  incar- 
nation than  the  circumstance  that  another  ideal  has 
now  actually  a  form  in  human  faith  and  zeal. 

In  like  manner  the  discovery  by  Christian  scholars, 
in  their  study  of  Hindu  religion,  of  what  they  .„ 

JO  J    'Preparation 

may  regard  as  faint  heathen  "  foregleams  and  for  christi- 
dim  presentiments  of  Christian  truths,"  —  such  anity' 
as  trinity,  atonement  by  the  saint  for  the  sinner,  and 
salvation  by  the. merits  of  the  saint, — justifies  no  ex- 
pectation that  the  Christian  forms  of  these  beliefs,  as 
"based  on  truth  instead  of  dream,"  must  be  recog- 
nized by  the  heathen  mind  as  that  for  which  it  was 
yearning,  and  for  which  its  way  has  been  prepared. 
The  resemblances  simply  show  that,  even  as  believers 
in  such  conceptions  and  doctrinal  forms,  the  Hindus 
can  satisfy  their  desire  through  their  own  sacred  books, 
legends  and  dogmatic  constructions,  without  resorting 
to  the  Christian. 


VI. 


TRANSMIGRATION. 


TRANSMIGRATION. 


'T^HERE  is  another  side  of  the  Hindu  conception 
-*■       of  life  and  nature  which  we  have  as  yet  Hindu  idea 
hardly  touched.  oflife- 

The  devotee  strove  to  extirpate  the  senses,  to  dis- 
solve the  external  world  in  illusion.  But  do  not 
suppose  that  this  effort  represents  his  spiritual  limit. 
Do  not  infer  that  his  religious  instinct  was  incapable 
of  touching  the  opposite  pole  of  experience.  Nature 
will  not  be  abjured.  The  Yogi  may  will  it  a  dream, 
or  the  Calvinist  pronounce  it  accursed.  But  the  denial 
enforces  its  own  antithesis.  And  in  the  East  a  path 
lay  open  to  reaction  in  behalf  of  the  senses,  through 
that  principle  which  we  have  seen  to  be  the  soul  of 
Hindu  faith  ;  namely,  that  all  life  is,  in  its  inmost 
essence,  one  and  the  same. 

It  has  been  believed  by  many,  that  Hindu  poetry 
represents  the  aspirations  of  the  lower  castes  as  Its  poetic 
distinguished  from  the  highest,  or  nominally  capabilities. 
religious,  class.  But  this  cannot  be  admitted.  If 
intuitive  imagination,  intense  ideality,  and  a  deep,  all- 
absorbing  sense  of.  the  mystery  of  being  are  qualities 
of  the  poet,  then  the  philosophy  and  religion  of  the 
Hindu  schools  are  eminently  poetic.  They  are  not  only 
so  in  substance,  but  in  nearly  all  their  great  products 
even  choose  the  poetic  form.     That  whatever  genuine 

33 


514  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

imaginative  power  they  have  tends  to  freedom  and 
universality  is  obvious  from  the  nature  of  imagination 
itself. 

Even  asceticism,  however  relentless,  could  not  sup- 
Love  of  press  the  enthusiasm  of  this  poetic  sense  for 
nature.  the  beauty  with  which  a  tropical  nature  sur- 
rounded and  beset  it.  Through  hymn  and  precept 
and  philosophic  discourse,  through  Veda,  Upanishad, 
and  Purana  alike,  flows  the  perpetual  symbolism  of 
day  and  night,  of  the  rivers,  the  mountains,  the  sea. 
Dawn  and  eve,  the  flow  of  seasons,  the  stir  of  life  and 
the  habits  of  creatures  in  those  solemn  Indian  forests, 
are  described  in  the  epos  and  mythic  tale  with  a  deli- 
cacy and  tenderness  hardly  to  be  expected  from  a 
people  whose  instinctive  disposition,  even  where  it  did 
not  reach  philosophical  expression,  was  to  regard 
nature  as  illusion. 

The  Ramayana  especially  abounds  in  what  we  may 
call  mood-painting  of  nature,  in  which  every  feature 
of  the  scene  is  harmonized  into  one  sympathetic  and 
responsive  relation  with  the  special  human  feeling  for 
the  time  in  contact  with  it.1  So  that  the  visible  world 
seems  graciously  made  to  lend  plastic  atmosphere  and 
expressive  voice  to  all  private  meditation  and  friendly 
communion.  While  Anasuya,  the  wife  of  a  forest 
saint,  listens  at  twilight  to  the  story  of  Sita's  youthful 
love,  she  seems  suddenly  to  awake,  as  by  some  mys- 
terious and  magnetic  outward  touch,  to  a  sense  that 
the  beauty  and  peace  of  the  hour  is  expressing,  better 
than  all  words,  what  both  their  hearts  find  in  the  tale. 

"  See,  O  bright  one  !  the  sun  has  set :  the  gracious  night,  set 
with  stars,  has  been  drawing  on.  The  birds,  scattered  by  day  in 
search  of  food,  are  now  softly  murmuring  in  their  nests.     The 

1  Kalidasa's  Meghaduta  (Carriercloud)  illustrates  this  perfectly. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  515 

sages  are  moving  homeward  from  their  ablutions,  their  evening 
sacrifices  are  offered,  and  the  blue  smoke  ascends  from  the  hermit- 
ages, tin°;ed  with  the  hue  of  the  dove's  neck.  The  trees  are  darken- 
ing all  around,  and  distant  objects  growing  dim  ;  while  the  night- 
loving  beasts  of  prey  are  prowling,  the  deer  are  sleeping  peacefully 
by  the  altars  and  sacred  places.  The  moon  clothed  with  brightness 
rises  in  the  sky."  ' 

It  is  so  natural  to  these  dreamers  to  find  nature  re- 
sponsive to  the  human  sentiment  or  mood  of  the  hour, 
that  they  constantly  fall  into  instinctive  recognition  of 
the  fact.  The  poet  thus  describes  the  impression  made 
by  the  first  experience  of  natural  scenery  upon  Rama 
and  Lakshmana  on  their  way  to  the  wilderness  :  — 

"  They  found  the  lakes  eager  to  serve  them  by  the  sweetness  of 
their  waters,  the  birds  by  their  delicious  warbling,  the  winds  by  the 
fragrant  dust  of  flowers  which  they  bore  along,  the  clouds  by  their 
refreshing  shadows."  2 

Pointing  out  to  Sita  the  scenes  of  his  exile,  and 
describing  his  pain  at  being  separated  from  her,  Rama 
says  :  — 

"  These  creepers,  which  could  not  speak,  but  which  had  pity  on 
my  grief,  showed  me  by  their  broken  branches  which  way  the  Rak- 
shasa  had  carried  thee  off,  affrighted.  I  knew  not  whither  thou 
wert  gone  ;  but  the  gazelles,  forgetting  to  graze,  and  holding  their 
heads  lifted,  directed  me  southward,  with  their  eyes.  The  clouds 
poured  down  fresh  rain  on  the  mountain  while  1  was  shedding  tears 
at  thy  absence.  At  this  season,  when  the  wet  earth  sympathized 
with  my  weeping,  I  could  not  bear  the  sight  of  the  early  spring 
buds,  that  seemed  seeking  to  rival  thy  eyes."  3 

And  again  as  they  pass  a  hermitage,  he  asks  :  — 

"  Do  not  the  grand  forest  trees,  under  which  the  hermits  have 
plunged  into  deeps  of  meditation  in  the  open  air,  seem  to  have 
been  themselves  transported,  by  their  own  serene  tranquillity,  into 
the  divine  life,  in  God  ?  "  4 

So  when  the  arch  demon  Ravana  approaches  Sita, 

1  Rdmdy.,  Ill  2  Raghuvansa,  XI.  8  Ibid.,  XIII.  «  Ibid. 


516  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

to  carry  her  away  captive,  all  nature   is  paralyzed 

with  fear :  — 

"  As  he  moves,  the  breeze  is  still  with  dread,  the  tree  shadows 
thicken ;  the  twigs  stiffen,  and  beasts  and  birds  stand  mute ;  and 
the  waves  of  the  river  tremble  with  terror."  ' 

The  universe  was  peopled  with  subtle  intelligences, 
whispering  presentiments  and  warnings,  and  assum- 
ing every  form  and  sound  by  turns  with  sportive  free- 
dom, unrestrained  by  that  sober  sense  of  limit  and 
definite  function  which  shaped  the  divinities  of  the 
Greek.  Millions  of  spiritual  beings  moved  in  the 
winds,  the  waters,  the  trees,  the  clouds  :  the  living 
creatures  were  but  their  masks,  half-hiding,  half- 
revealing  this  weird  possession  of  each  form  by  the 
infinite  productivity  of  nature.  Hosts  of  fairies  and 
demons,  troops  of  dancers  and  singers,  Apsaras  and 
Gandharvas,  hovered  in  the  sky,  rained  flowers  on 
the  altars  and  the  festive  crowds,  or  filled  the  air  with 
sweet  and  solemn  music.  Life  was  a  stream  that 
flowed  through  endless  transformations ;  and  it  was 
the  delight  of  this  mystical  fancy  to  trace  the  protean 
play  from  shape  to  shape,  through  all  the  changes  of 
natural  birth  and  death,  in  man,  in  the  lower  animals, 
in  the  vegetable  and  even  in  the  mineral  world ;  and 
to  associate  them  by  ideal  identities,  as  earnestly  as 
modern  science  traces  the  atom  through  all  the  trans- 
migrations of  its  history. 

The  senses  asserted  their  rights.  And  the  incessant 
source  of  efforts  of  the  devotee  to  escape  their  sphere 
the  idea  of   onu,   turned  his    thoughts   the   more   intently, 

metemp-  •>  °  •> 

sychosis.  at  intervals,  on  their  importunate  addresses. 
And  this  is  a  source  of  the  extraordinary  propor- 
tions assumed  in  Hindu  thought  by  the  idea  of  me- 

1  Ramciy.,  III. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  5 17 

tempsychosis.  The  belief  that  each  human  soul 
passes  through  a  succession  of  lives,  in  different 
bodily  forms,  visible  or  invisible,  and  in  ascending, 
descending,  or  revolving  series, — human,  animal, 
vegetable,  or  even  cosmical,  from  the  plant  to  the 
star,  —  has  perhaps  been  accepted,  in  some  form,  by 
disciples  of  every  great  religion  in  the  world.  It 
is  common  to  Greek  philosophers,  Egyptian  priests, 
Jewish  Rabbins,  and  several  early  Christian  sects.  It 
appears  in  the  speculations  of  the  Kabbalists,  of  the 
Neo-Platonists,  of  later  European  mystics,  and  even 
of  socialists  like  Fourier,  who  elaborates  a  fanciful 
system  of  successive  lives  mutually  connected  by 
numerical  relations.  It  reaches  from  the  Eleusinian 
Mysteries  down  to  the  religions  of  many  rude  tribes 
of  North  America  and  the  Pacific  isles.  Not  a  few 
noble  dreams  of  the  cultivated  imagination  are  subtly 
associated  with  it,  as  in  Plato,  Giordano  Bruno, 
Herder,  Sir  Thomas  Browne  ;  and  especially  notable 
is  Lessing's  conception  of  a  gradual  improvement  of 
the  human  type  through  metamorphosis  in  a  series  of 
future  lives.  Its  prominence  in  the  faith  of  the  Hindus 
affords  ample  material  for  studying  its  natural  grounds 
and  conditions,  as  well  as  its  significance  for  the  uni- 
versal experience. 

Metempsychosis,  as  an  idea  and  a  faith,  has  been 
substantially  the  effort  to  express  certain  im-  Its  higher 
perishable  intuitions  and  organic  relations.  elements. 

At  the  root  of  it  lay  first  the  sense  of  immortality  : 
the  idea  of  life  as  not  only  transcending  death,  T 

J  °  Immortality. 

but  as   multiplying  itself  through   successive 

forms  of  transient  being,  as  if  to  emphasize  and  affirm 

its  own  necessity  again  and  again  ;  an  entity  which  no 


518  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

bonds  of  material  investment  could  hold  fast  and  no 
dissolution  destroy,  however  low  it  might  descend 
in  the  scale  of  nature.  The  sense  of  immortality  is 
indeed  always  in  some  sort  a  sense  of  inherent  exist- 
ence, and  looks  backward  as  well  as  forward,  behind 
birth  as  well  as  beyond  death  ;  infers  ^r^-existence  as 
well  as  ^><?5/-existence.  It  shrinks  as  much  from  an 
absolute  beginning  of  our  being  as  from  an  end  of  it ; 
and  so  must  either  leave  the  soul  it  is  tracing  back- 
ward, in  an  impenetrable  mystery,  content  with  noting 
its  emergence  thence,  at  the  moment  of  what  we  call 
birth,  "trailing  clouds  of  glory  from  God,  who  is  our 
home,"  —  or  else  follow  its  earlier  adventures  with 
the  eye  of  faith,  through  previous  forms  of  being, 
forgotten  or  dimly  recollected.  And  so  the  contem- 
plative imagination  of  the  Hindus  loved  to  brood  over 
these  possible  forms  of  successive  births  in  both  direc- 
tions, from  the  island  of  this  present  life  through 
boundless  oceans  of  the  past  and  future.  It  was  at 
least  a  serene  and  immovable  presumption  of  immor- 
tality that  made  this  dream-voyage  through  the 
spheres  of  existence  attractive  and  even  possible. 

Then  there  was  the  profound  faith  in  immutable 
Moral  laws  of  moral  sequence.  "Action,"  says  Ma- 
sequence.  nU;  "verbal,  corporeal,  mental,  bears  good 
or  evil  fruit,  according  to  its  kind  :  from  men's  deeds 
proceed  their  transmigrations."  1  In  the  philosophical 
language  of  the  Hindu  schools,  the  "  bonds  of  action  " 
are  but  another  name  for  the  endless  consequences  of 
conduct.  It  was  natural  to  explain  in  this  way  those 
present  moral  as  well  as  physical  inequalities  among 
men,  their  differing  characters  and  destinies,  which 
could  not  be  accounted  for  by  the  data  at  hand.      The 

i  Matiu,  XII.  3. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  519 

sense  of  justice  demanded  that  there  should  be  found 
adequate  grounds  for  these  differences,  in  antecedent 
good  or  bad  conduct ;  which  of  course  could  only  have 
made  their  marks  in  earlier  states  of  existence.  Such 
speculations  have  been  common  in  the  Christian  world 
also  ;  as  solutions  to  justify  not  merely  these  actual  dif- 
ferences in  human  destiny,  but  even  those  imaginary 
ones  of  theological  invention,  for  whose  infiniteness 
there  seemed  no  rational  ground  in  men's  actual  doings 
in  this  world.  From  Origen  down  to  Edward  Beecher, 
the  solution  of  this  "  conflict  of  ages"  has  been  sought 
in  j> re-existence,  which  one  or  another  theory  of 
human  nature  and  destiny  had  made  a  necessary 
hypothesis,  upon  these  constantly  recognized  princi- 
ples of  moral  continuity  and  sequence. 

We  cannot  wonder  that  the  ancients  satisfied  their 
instincts  of  justice  by  similar  explanations  of  the  mys- 
teries of  good  and  evil,  both  physical  and  moral. 

It  is  the  force  of  this  ethical  demand  that  every  gift 
or  defect  shall  find  its  ground  in  positive  de-  Ethical  de- 
sert, shall  point  to  some  way  in  which  it  was  ™aVs°tr_ 
earned,  —  that  so  frequently  causes  great  per-  ence. 
sonal  virtues  or  powers  to  impress  the  imagination  as 
spiritual  resources  that  only  pre-existence  can  explain  ; 
as  heaped-up  harvests  of  former  lives,  spent  in  noble 
disciplines  and  toil ;  while  excessive  forms  of  vice 
seem  to  require  similar  accumulations  of  evil  tendency 
through  lives  of  correspondent  tone. 

Hereditary  transmission  is  indeed  the  only  answer 
of  science  to  these  problems,  —  and  this,  in  fact,  is 
transmigration  of  qualities  and  destinies,  if  not  of 
souls  ;  but  it  does  not  satisfy  that  demand  of  the  moral 
nature,  which  pre-existence,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
better  suited  to  meet ;  and  so  the  solution  of  the  in- 


520  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

equalities  in  question  goes  over  with  us  more  wisely, 
among  the  possibilities  of  the  life  to  come.  Our  oracle 
is  not  memory,  but  growth. 

The  inadequacy  of  these  backward-looking  solutions 
is  shown  especially  in  the  injustice  of  supposing  that 
the  evil  in  men's  characters  or  circumstances  is  punish- 
ment for  sins  committed  in  a  previous  life,  and  conse- 
quently is  simply  their  desert.  It  would  seem  to  forbid 
kindness  and  mercy  as  interferences  with  such  ap- 
pointed retribution.  It  would  seem  to  eternize  such 
conditions  of  evil,  and  to  make  their  abolition  a 
crime.  Some  have  even  traced  the  persistence  of 
caste  in  India  to  the  force  of  this  transmigration- faith, 
and  its  associated  theory  of  evil.  The  idea  that  evil 
is  always  the  sign  and  punishment  of  past  sin  was 
not,  however,  peculiar  to  the  Hindus,  nor  to  the  belief 
in  transmigration.  It  was  held  by  the  Hebrews  also  ; 
and  the  protest  of  the  natural  heart  and  mind  against 
it  is  the  central  idea  of  the  sublime  drama  of  Job. 

In  fact  the  grand  humanities  of  Hebrew  thought 
combine  with  those  of  Buddhism  to  prove  that  men 
have  not  always  allowed  their  belief  in  this  theory  of 
evil  as  the  punishment  of  sin  to  produce  its  logical 
consequences  by  paralyzing  the  desire  of  moral  prog- 
ress and  hardening  the  heart.  We  even  find  that 
the  sources  of  belief  in  transmigration  reveal  germs 
of  a  quite  opposite  character,  of  which  we  shall  pres- 
ently speak. 

In  truth,  neither  hereditary  transmission  nor  metemp- 
sychosis  can  explain  these   mysteries  of  gift 

A  presenti-      J  .  .  ,   .     , 

mentofsci-  and  defect,  or  happiness  and  misery,  which 
emific  truth.  depend  Qn    causes    inconceivably   subtle    and 

past  fathoming.  But  not  the  less  truly  was  the  old 
wide-spread  belief   in   manifold  births    and    lives  an 


TRANSMIGRATION.  521 

earnest  attempt  to  solve  them  on  the  principle  of 
inviolable  moral  consequences.  And  there  is  a  sense 
in  which  ancient  dream  and  modern  science  are  here 
blended  in  a  higher  unity.  Thus  an  Upanishad,  relat 
ing  to  birth,  contains  a  description  of  the  embryo  soul, 
as  remembering  former  births  and  deeds,  "  having 
eaten  many  forms  of  food  and  drunk  at  many 
breasts ;  "  and  as  then,  upon  entering  the  world  of 
separate  existence,  losing  the  memory  of  these,  while 
yet  the  consequences  remain.1  It  would  be  hard  to 
find  a  fairer  statement  than  this,  at  once  of  what  we 
know  and  what  we  dream,  concerning  the  mystery  of 
our  endowment  from  the  past. 

But  the  sense  of  immortality  and  the  conviction  of 
inviolable  moral  sequence  had  in  India  a  soil  Un;tyof 
to  work  in,  of  which  metempsychosis  was  the  llfe- 
natural  and  inevitable  fruit.  In  the  consciousness  of 
the  Hindu,  all  life  was  included  under  one  conception, 
in  one  essence :  one  ocean  where  individual  forms  and 
grades  of  vitality  were  but  transient  waves  that  rose 
and  fell ;  or,  while  holding  their  distinct  and  definite 
being,  were  yet  of  like  substance  with  the  whole.  It 
was  not  so  much  that  these  individualities,  or  their 
continued  existence,  could  be  actually  denied ;  but 
rather  that  the  emphasis  was  laid  on  life  itself,  as 
idea,  as  common  ground  of  all  lives ;  life,  the  mystery 
in  them  all,  the  fullness,  the  freedom,  the  infinite 
capacity  of  metamorphosis,  of  protean  play. 

In  this  mystical  brooding  over  the  unity  of  all  life, 
this  sympathetic  affinity,  and  sense  of  even  inmost 
identity  with  the  whole,  there  lay  of  course  a  power- 
ful motive  to  the  love  of  all  living  creatures.     "The 

1  GarbJui  UpatiisJiad,  in  Weber"s  Indische  Stud.,  II.  69,  70. 


522  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Indian,  united  with  all  nature  by  ties  of  brotherhood, 
had  his  ears  open  on  every  side  to  the  voice  of  com- 
passion."1 And  here  was  the  reaction  from  ideal 
dreams  to  interest  in  the  visible  outward  world,  of 
which,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  transmigration 
theory  of  the  Hindus  illustrates  the  naturalness  and 
even  necessity. 

Why  should  not  the  quiet  anchorets,  dreaming  on 
The  animal  tnis  unity  of  all  living  and  even  lifeless  forms, 
world.  on  this  common  experience  that  like  the  light 
came  back  in  myriad  reflections  from  them  all  to  the 
dreaming  mind  and  heart,  suppose  the  brute  creatures 
bound  to  themselves  by  human  ties?  They  stood  in 
much  closer  intimacy  with  these  lower  forms  of  being 
than  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  who  praised  God  "  for  our 
brothers  the  sun,  the  wind,  the  air  and  cloud,  by 
which  Thou  upholdest  life  in  all  beings ; "  who  is  said 
to  have  made  literal  application  of  the  text,  "  Go 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,"  and  to  have 
loved  to  linger  along  his  way,  that  he  might  join  his 
"sisters,  the  birds,  in  singing  praises  to  the  Maker," 
and  even  remove  worms  from  the  path,  lest  they 
should  be  crushed  by  the  traveller's  foot.  The  Hindu 
hermits  fed  and  tamed  the  forest  creatures,  and  learned 
their  language.  "  The  gentle  roe-deer,  taught  to  trust 
in  man,  unstartled  heard  their  voices."2  They  saw 
that  upward  striving  towards  man,  on  which  modern 
science  itself  hesitates  to  draw  a  line  that  shall  sepa- 
rate instinct  and  reason,  and  on  which  its  comparative 
biology  founds  the  largest  unities.  They  pitied  the 
dove  torn  by  the  eagle,  the  antelope  fleeing  from  the 
tiger.  They  saw  tenderness  in  the  eye  of  the  bird ; 
and  august  serenity  in  the  step  of  the  elephant. 

1  Fr.  v   Schlegel.  2  Sakuntala- 


TRANSMIGRATION.  523 

The  Raghuvansa  describes  a  good  king  as  "  con- 
joining qualities  which  ordinarily  interfere  with  each 
other,  in  pure  accord,  as  the  creatures  lay  down  their 
natural  antipathies  when  they  come  to  the  peaceful 
hermitage  of  a  saint."  The  alarm  of  one  of  these  pet 
antelopes  at  sight  of  the  royal  hunter's  arrow  is  thus 
depicted  by  Kalidasa  :  — 

"  Aye  and  anon  his  graceful  neck  he  bends 
To  cast  a  glance  at  the  pursuing  car  ; 
And,  dreading  now  the  swift-descending  shaft, 
Contracts  into  itself  his  slender  frame  : 
About  his  path,  in  scattered  fragments  strewn, 
The  half-chewed  grass  falls  from  his  panting  mouth  ; 
See,  in  his  airy  bounds  he  seems  to  fly, 
And  leaves  no  trace  upon  the  elastic  turf." 

The  hermits  interfere,  and  save  their  pretty  charge. 

"  Now  heaven  forbid  this  barbed  shaft  descend 
Upon  the  fragile  body  of  a  fawn, 
Like  fire  upon  a  heap  of  tender  flowers  ! 
Can  thy  steel  bolts  no  meeter  quarry  find 
Than  the  warm  life-blood  of  a  harmless  deer  ? 
Restore,  great  prince,  thy  weapon  to  its  quiver. 
More  it  becomes  thy  arms  to  shield  the  weak 
Than  to  bring  anguish  on  the  innocent."  1 

The  mystery  of  animal  instinct  might  well  inspire  a 
certain  awe  and  tender  sympathy  in  such  students  of 
it  as  these  anchorets  were  ;  so  unerring  is  it,  so  finely 
attuned  to  nature,  so  rich  in  presentiment  and  omen, 
so  magnetic  in  its  fascinations.  Montaigne  quaintly 
says  :  — 

"  It  is  yet  to  be  determined  where  the  fault  lies  that  the  beasts 
and  we  don't  understand  each  other ;  for  we  understand  them  as 
little  as  they  do  us  ;  and  by  the  same  reason  they  may  think  us 
beasts,  as  we  think  them.     From  what  comparison  do  we  conclude 

1  Williams's  transl.  of  Sahmtala. 


524  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  stupidity  we  attribute  to  them  ?  When  I  play  with  my  cat,  who 
knows  whether  I  do  not  make  her  more  sport  than  she  does  me  ? 
We  mutually  divert  each  other." 

It  is  worth  while,  in  view  of  this  old  and  wide-spread 
instinct  for  metempsychosis,  to  read  his  very  sugges- 
tive record  of  the  points  in  which  we  must  confess  that 
brutes  are  beyond  us.1  What  wonder  is  it  that  the 
eager  soothsayers  everywhere  pried  into  the  flight  of 
birds,  the  howling  of  dogs,  the  cackling  of  geese,  the 
hooting  of  owls,  the  cawing  of  crows,  and  searched 
the  very  entrails  of  beasts,  to  get  at  the  secret  that 
places  them  in  such  rapport  as  they  evidently  inherit, 
with  human  life?  There  was  not  a  little  true  science 
blended  with  the  dreams  and  arts  of  the  old  haruspices  ; 
and  there  was  still  more  of  respect  for  the  fine  truth 
and  wisdom  of  instinct,  in  that  persistent  faith  of  the 
people  by  which  these  auguries  were  sustained.  In- 
stinct knows  its  path  ;  is  not  deceived ;  halts  not,  nor 
wavers  between  opinions ;  has  the  wisdom  of  artists 
and  lovers,  of  councillors  and  soldiers ;  listens  and 
divines  like  genius ;  obeys  an  unseen  guide  through 
solitary  ways  we  cannot  trace,  "lone  wandering,  but 
not  lost."  Man  himself — whose  mature  vision  sees 
here  the  sweet  symbol  of  an  invisible  care,  that  "  in  the 
long  way  that  he  must  tread  alone  will  guide  his  steps 
aright"  —  hastened,  even  while  ignorant  of  natural 
laws,  to  honor  and  consult  this  mysteriously  sympa- 
thetic oracle.  He  explored  this  hieroglyphic  of  nat- 
ure, even  before  he  could  read  his  own  thought.  We 
can  well  understand  how  the  oldest  wisdom  should 
have  found  its  place  in  the  mouths  of  the  brute  creat- 
ures. It  was  man's  early  recognition  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  life  in  general,  and  specially  of  that  veiled  life 

1  Essays,  II.  xii.     {Apology  for  Raimond  Sebonde.) 


TRANSMIGRATION.  525 

whose  inarticulate  speech  was  itself  a  kind  of  silence, 
and  intimated  with  double  force  the  mystery  that  per- 
vades and  limits  every  form  of  language  and  com- 
munion.1 

We  must  remember,  too,  that  the  first  preaching  of 
Nature  is  in  types  and  symbols  of  man.  She  sympathies 
is  the  endless  and  ever-present  parable  of  his  °at™an  ar 
experience.  And  long  before  he  understands  how  to 
cultivate  patience,  fortitude,  trust,  and  love,  as  recog- 
nized forms  of  virtue,  they  shine  before  him  in  divine 
symbols  that  reflect  his  own  spontaneous  instincts,  out 
of  the  unfailing  endurance  of  the  beasts  of  burden, 
the  loves  and  labors  of  the  birds,  the  peaceful  accord 
of  the  wild  creatures  with  those  orderly  laws  of  nature 
which  prescribe  their  roaming  and  their  rest.  Even  the 
wide-spreading,  sheltering  trees  are  human  to  these 
poetic  ethics,  and  the  grass  of  the  field  has  a  life  be- 
yond itself,  and  the  waterfalls  and  rocks  are  souls. 
An  older  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  in  man,  and 
made  him  hearken  gladly  to  worded  lessons  from  the 
lilies  and  the  fowls ;  for  the  voice  of  the  teacher  was 
but  an  echo  from  his  own  childhood.  There  is  tran- 
scendent truth  in  the  Hebrew  myth  that  makes  it  man's 
first  dignity  to  divine  the  sense  of  the  living  creatures, 
and  to  give  them  names. 

The  oldest  books  that  delighted  men,  and  gave  life 
a  genial  aspect,  were  the  Fable  Books.     And 
so  richly  and  creatively  did  the  imagination 
flow  in  this  direction,  at  the  very  outset,  that  most  of 
our  present   stock  of  fables    are    somehow   traceable 


1  See  Plutarch's  Essay  on  Land  and  Water  Animals  (Goodwin's  Plutarch,  vol.  v.) 
The  interest  inherent  in  the  subject  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  Professor  Abbot,  in  his 
invaluable  Bibliography  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life.,  gives  account  of  nearly  two 
hundred  works  concerning  the  "  Souls  of  Brutes." 


526  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

back  to  primitive  Eastern  apologues.  The  oldest 
known  collections  in  the  world  are  of  Hindu  origin. 
The  Sanskrit  Hitopadesa,  or  "  Good  Counsels "  of 
Vishnu  Sarma,  and  the  still  older  Panchatantra  (with 
which  recent  discoveries  are  tending  more  and  more 
fully  to  identify  it1),  have  been  freely  translated  into 
most  languages  0f  the  East  and  of  the  West,  and  have 
made  the  name  of  Pilpay,  or  Bidpai,  the  beloved  phy- 
sician, to  whom  they  are  mythically  ascribed,  im- 
mortal, and  everywhere  at  home.  The  far  East  is 
thus  an  ever-present  teacher  of  civilization,  appealing 
in  the  simplest  and  most  effective  way  to  the  plastic 
mind  of  childhood,  an  unfailing  fountain  of  practical 
and  humane  wisdom.  The  Hindu  works  just  men- 
tioned form  the  basis  and  type  of  most  literature  of 
this  kind,  although  Greeks,  Hebrews,  Teutons,  and 
other  races,  have  each  a  stock  of  primitive  gnomic 
apologues  and  maxims,  of  a  more  or  less  original 
cast.2 

It  is  most  interesting  to  note  that  the  earliest  real 
wisdom  of  life,  the  opening  of  its  practical  and  social 
meaning,  has  been  also  an  expression  of  human  sym- 
pathy with  the  animal  world.  The  morality  of  the 
Hindu  fable-books  is,  as  we  have  already  seen,  of 
good  quality  ;  and  their  hearty  common  sense  redeems 
Indian  literature  from  the  charge  of  being  competent 
to  sentimental  and  speculative  interests  only.  Their 
frank  and  manly  dealing  with  the  facts  of  common 
life  make  them  a  democratic  protest,  and  an  appeal 

1  See  Benfey,  in  The  Academy  for  April,  1872. 

2  Deslongchamps  (Essai  sur  les  Fables  Indiennes)  and  Benfey  (Einhit.  z-  Pants- 
chatantra)  carefully  trace  the  relations  of  Western  apologues  and  tales  to  these  popular 
Hindu  works.  Lassen,  IV.  902,  even  ascribes  the  A  rabian  Nights'  Entertamwents  to 
Hindu  sources.  Weber  {Indische  Studien,  III.)  has  endeavored  to  separate  a  portion  of 
the  Indian  fables  from  the  rest,  as  derived  from  Greece  ;  but  he  does  so  only  to  assign  them, 
further  back,  to  a  Semitic  — still  an  Oriental  —  origin. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  527 

against  social  inequalities,  in  spite  of  their  devotion  to 
royalty  and  other  traditional  institutions  ;  all  of  which 
they  admonish,  rebuke,  and  instruct,  with  a  fearless- 
ness and  authority  that  is  more  refreshing  than  that 
of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  in  so  far  as  it  stands  wholly 
on  the  ground  and  in  the  strength  of  familiar  ethical 
laws.  The  half-humorous  indirectness  of  these  pro- 
tests and  appeals,  sent  through  the  lower  creatures,  is 
as  genial  as  it  is  sincere,  and  touches  our  sympathies 
more  strongly  than  sterner  tones  of  denunciation. 

The  Persian  compiler  of  the  Anvar-i-Suhaili,  which 

consists  of  the  substance  of  the  Hitopadesa  and  the 

Panchatantra,    translated   into    Pehlevi    in    the    sixth 

'   century,  describing  the  original  Indian  work,  says,  — 

"  In  the  time  of  Kasra  Nushirwan  this  intelligence  became  spread 
abroad,  that  among  the  treasures  of  the  kings  of  Hindustan  there 
is  a  book  which  they  have  compiled  from  the  speech  of  brutes,  —  of 
birds  and  reptiles  and  savage  beasts  ;  and  all  that  befits  a  king  in 
the  matter  of  government  is  exhibited  within  the  folds  of  its  leaves, 
and  men  regard  it  as  the  stock  of  all  advice  and  the  medium  of  all 
advantage." ' 

These  "  Good  Counsels  "  of  the  Brutes  concern  all 
matters  involved  in  social  and  personal  relations,  but 
their  special  bearing  is  on  the  duties  and  opportunities 
of  kings.  "The  Fable,  with  the  Hindus,"  says  Professor 
Wilson,  "constitutes  the  science  of  JVztt,  or  polity; 
rules  for  the  good  government  of  society  in  all  matters 
not  religious,  the  reciprocal  duties  of  members  of  an 
organized  body ;  and  is  hence  especially  intended 
for  the  education  of  princes."  This  is  true  not  only  of 
the  Hitopadesa  and  the  Panchatantra,  but  to  an  extent 
of  the  epics  also,  which  have  even  been  called  nitisas- 
tras,  abounding  as  they  do  in  political  teaching,  and 

1  Anv&r-i-Siihaili,  Eastwick's  transl.,  p.  6. 


528  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

especially  from  the  animals.  For  these  old  monitors, 
kings  are  divinities  ;  but  it  is,  after  all,  only  the  ideal 
ruler  that  has  honor,  all  unworthy  kingcraft  being 
severely  handled  both  in  the  fables  and  maxims. 
How  significant  a  fact,  that  the  teaching  of  practical 
ideals  should  have  been  referred  to  this  world  of  lower 
creatures,  which  we  have  been  taught  to  regard  as 
without  gift  of  choice  or  power  of  progress  ! 

The  use  of  the  Apologue  under  despotic  govern- 
ments in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  freer  West  (where 
it  is  illustrated  by  the  old  German  epos  of  Reynard 
the  Fox),  to  convey  satire  and  rebuke  without  offence 
to  established  powers,  —  or,  in  Oriental  phrase,  "that  the 
ear  of  authority  may  be  approached  by  the  tongue  of 
wisdom," — has  been  often  exaggerated,  though  to  an 
extent  real.  But  it- is  hardly  possible  to  overstate  the 
freedom  of  play  allowed  the  imagination  by  these  half- 
human  spheres  of  a  strange  unfathomable  life.  The 
strictly  ethical  purpose  of  the  Fable  indeed  imposes 
certain  limits  upon  the  passion  for  hyperbole,1  as  does 
also  that  strong  positive  realism  of  animal  qualities 
and  habits,  which  constitutes  its  material.  But  in 
a  religious  and  moral  direction  there  was  abundant 
room  for  idealization  in  these  mysterious  fidelities 
and  powers. 

And  so  we  can  easily  understand  how  the  later  my- 
Animaisym-thology  and  popular  poetry  of  India  came  to 
boiism.  represent  the  deities  in  their  incarnations  as 
assuming  the  brute  even  oftener  than  the  human  form, 
while  yet  maintaining  therein  the  noblest  human  vir- 
tues, or  manifesting  spiritual  capacities  vainly  sought 


1  Not  always  obeyed  in  these  old  fables,  which  are  occasionally  extravagant  in  their 
descriptions  of  moral  disciplines  and  sacrifices,  —  an  argument,  with  Benfey,  for  their  Budd- 
histic origin. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  529 

among  men.  Thus  that  strange,  long-lived,  heavy- 
winged  creature,  the  crow,1  was  held  to  be  older  than 
years  could  record.  Perched  on  a  rock  or  tree,  he  is 
the  most  venerable  of  devotees,  meditating  on  the 
marvellous  lives  he  has  passed  through,  and  dispens- 
ing to  the  eagle,  monarch  of  birds,  lessons  of  eternal 
wisdom  for  the  government  of  himself  and  his  empire.2 
The  clumsy  condor,  sailing  on  massive  wing  over 
Chimborazo,  was  held  sacred  by  the  Incas  and  carved 
on  their  sceptres,  as  the  eagle  on  those  of  the  Ceesars. 
No  wonder  the  heavy  crow,  who  climbs  among  ever- 
lasting snows,  is  equally  a  wonder  to  the  Hindu. 
The  Sanskrit  language  gives  him  no  less  than  seventy 
names.  The  serpent,  worshipped  by  the  aboriginal 
Hindu  tribes,  and  symbolic  to  the  Aryans  of  wis- 
dom, healing,  eternity,  has  a  hundred  names.3  There 
were  legends  that  consecrated  the  habits  of  the  vul- 
ture,4 that  careful  and  thorough  effacer  of  all  revolting 
signs  of  decay  and  death ;  and  of  the  fish,  pathfinder 
and  leader  of  man  through  the  watery  wastes  ;  and  of 
the  tortoise,  broadbacked  supporter  that  no  burden 
breaks  down.  The  monkeys,  those  semi-human,  self- 
asserting  proprietors  of  the  primeval  forests  of  the 
Dekkan,  become  in  the  epics  divine  guides  and  deliv- 
erers of  man  in  his  explorations  of  their  pathless  ex- 
panses.5 The  mythologist  gave  his  god  of  wisdom 
an  elephant's  head  ;  mounted  the  avenging  goddess  on 
a  tiger ;  strung  the  bow  of  his  Cupid  with  a  thread  of 
honey  bees ;  inwove  the  habits  of  every  creature  with 
the  protean  metamorphoses  of  divinity.     As  the  Assy- 

1  Michelet,  The  Bird,  p.  161.  2  Ramay.,  VII. 

3  Pictet,  Orig-  Indo-Europ. 

4  See  the  beautiful  tale,  in  the  Ram&yana,  of  the  chivalrous  attempt  of  the  vulture 
king  to  protect  Sita  from  Ravana,  which  costs  him  his  life. 

6  Ramay.,  IV.  V. 

34 


530  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

rian  made  and  hallowed  his  cherubim,  and  the  Egyp- 
tian his  sphinxes,  by  means  of  this  sympathetic  sense 
of  the  unity  of  human  and  brute  life,  so  the  Hindu 
took  the  ox  and  the  cow  as  representative  of  the  sanc- 
tities of  labor  and  beneficence ;  an  instinct  of  special 
veneration  common  to  India  and  Persia  and  Egypt 
and  the  Teutonic  North. 

"  May  he  who  has  done  wrong  to  my  brother  Rama," 
says  Bharata  in  the  epic,  "be  the  messenger  of  the 
wicked !  May  he  kick  his  foot  against  a  sleeping 
cow !  "  l  To  this  day  the  country  people  in  some 
districts  of  India  put  blades  of  grass  between  their 
teeth  when  they  would  deprecate  anger,  to  remind 
those  whom  they  fear,  of  the  human  protection  and 
regard  to  which  the  cow  is  supposed  to  appeal.2  This 
honor  to  the  cow  is  the  most  ancient  and  universal 
form  of  devotion  to  animals  known  in  India.  The 
patient,  faithful,  bounteous  creature  was  so  essential 
and  dear  to  the  Vedic  herdsmen  that  they  made  her 
attend  the  dead  on  his  journey  to  the  world  of  the 
fathers,  to  help  him  across  the  deep  river,  to  guard 
him  from  all  foes.3  Even  the  gradual  degeneracy 
of  mankind  was  quaintly  enough  symbolized  by  this 
sacred  animal  standing  in  the  golden  age  on  four  legs, 
in  the  silver  on  three,  in  the  brass  on  two,  and  in  the 
iron  on  one. 

The  zebus,  or  humpbacked  cattle  of  India,  are 
indeed  very  beautiful  animals,  and  may  well  have 
inspired  reverence  among  a  primitive  people.  They 
have  mild,  intelligent  eyes,  a  kindly  expression,  and 
their  sides  are  covered  with  satinlike  hair.  As 
working,  and  as  milch  cattle,  they  are  of  admirable 

1  Ramayana,  II.  2  Elliott's  N.  W.  India,  I.  p.  241. 

s  See  Pictet,  II.  519;  Miiller  in  Zeiisch.  d.  D.  M.  G.,  IX.  Append. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  531 

quality ;  and  their  walk  is  almost  as  fast  as  that  of  a 
horse.1  The  primal  gratitude  and  veneration  has  con- 
tinued throughout  Hindu  history.  Kalidasa  describes 
in  a  poetic  strain  the  devotions  rendered  by  a  king  to 
the  sacred  milch  cow  of  a  hermitage,  in  recognition  of 
her  "bearing  in  her  full  breast  the  means  of  paying  the 
offerings  due  to  guests,  to  manes,  and  to  gods."  All 
this  was  certainly  natural  enough  to  the  Indo- Aryan, 
from  the  earliest  Vedic  times  when  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  were  one  great  pasture  ground  for  his  divine 
herdsmen,  who  milked  the  rain-clouds  for  his  support, 
down  to  the  days  of  hermits  whose  still,  patient,  dreamy, 
ruminant  life  irresistibly  suggests  the  image.  Even 
the  intolerable  divine  cows  and  bulls  of  Benares 
testify  of  what  was  once  a  mingled  sentiment  of 
natural  sympathy,  gratitude  for  bounty,  and  religious 
awe. 

Plutarch  says  the  Egyptians  called  their  sacred  bull 
Apis  "  the  fair  and  beautiful  image  of  the  soul  of 
Osiris." 

That  the  animal  symbolism  of  the  Egyptians  and 
Hindus  was  associated  with  agricultural  interests  and 
astronomical  signs  is  unquestionable.  But  this  simply 
indicates  how  profound  was  the  impression  made  by 
these  relations  of  the  animal  world  with  the  blessing's 
of  the  earth  and  the  sky.  It  may  be,  too,  that  the 
epical  incarnations  in  bears  and  monkeys,  and  the  pop- 
ular avataras  of  Vishnu  in  the  shapes  of  fish,  tortoise, 
lion,  and  boar,  were,  as  a  recent  writer  suggests,2 
connected  in  some  way  with  the  -pre- Aryan  worship  of 
animals  among  the  native  tribes  of  the  Dekkan,  as  was 
certainly  the  case  with  the  widely  spread  veneration 

1  See  U-  S.  Agricultural  Report  for  1865.  2  Wheeler's  Hist,  of  India. 


532  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

for  the  serpent  in  India ;  and  that  their  celebration  in 
the  Ramayana  was  but  part  of  the  appeal  of  Neo-Brah- 
manism  to  popular  beliefs  for  the  purpose  of  expelling 
Buddhism.  But  behind  all  these  incidental  causes 
lies  the  deeper  religions  instinct  which  must  explain 
such  traditional  worship  itself.  This  is  the  ground 
of  that  striking  difference  which  characterizes  the 
literatures  of  Europe  and  Asia,  in  their  treatment  of 
brute  nature.  In  the  Hindu  fables  we  find  it  instinc- 
tively idealized :  its  best  elements  are  gladly  brought 
out,  and  even  the  lowest  treated  with  geniality.  In 
the  Teutonic  epic  of  Reynard  the  Fox,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  lowest  are  emphasized,  and  even  the  best 
have  little  respect.  In  the  East  the  brute  world 
belongs  to  religion ;  in  the  West,  to  satire.  In  Brah- 
manical  legend,  it  has  spiritual  and  moral  validity  in 
itself:  in  the  Christian  and  Jewish,  its  worth  stands 
mainly  in  its  ministry  to  man,  or  as  with  the  beast 
shapes  of  St.  Anthony's  tempters,  and  the  gargoyles 
of  Gothic  architecture,  as  affording  convenient  mas- 
querade for  evil  powers.  It  has  been  noted,  too,  as  a 
difference  between  the  Hindu  fables  and  the  ^Esopic 
or  Greek,  that  the  former  makes  free  use  of  the  animal 
world  indiscriminately  for  the  representation  of  human 
character  and  feeling,  while  the  latter  employs  the 
creatures  in  a  more  critical  spirit,  according  to  their 
special  traits.1  Yet  this  distinction  may  easily  be 
carried  much  too  far  for  the  truth. 

It  is  not  without  reason  that  Michelet,  pointing  to 
the  functions  of  the  cow  and  the  ibis,  the  one  to  sup- 
port human,  the  other  to  destroy  reptile  life,  says : 
"  That  which    has   saved   India  and  Egypt   through 

1  Benfey,  Einleit.  z.  Pantsch- 


TRANSMIGRATION.  533 

so  many  misfortunes,  and  preserved  their  fertility,  is 
neither  the  Nile  nor  the  Ganges  :  it  is  respect  for 
animal  life  by  the  mild  and  gentle  heart  of  man."  ! 

"  God  made  all  the  creatures,  and  gave  them 
Our  love  and  our  fear : 
To  show  we  and  they  are  His  children, 
One  family  here." 

The  beautiful  Isis-myth  of  Egypt  binds  the  human, 
animal,  and  inanimate  worlds  in  common  ties  T   t  „ 

In  the  Egyp- 

of  tender  sympathy  with  the  divine.  The  god-  tian  isis- 
dess  is  guided  in  her  sorrowful  search  for  the  myt 
lost  Osiris  by  the  divination  of  little  children,  and  by 
the  instinct  of  the  dog ;  while  the  ark  that  holds  his 
sacred  body  is  protected  by  the  loving  embrace  of  a 
growing  tree.  And  so  all  three  forms  of  natural  life 
are  consecrated  through  powers  of  service  faithfully 
used,  and  held  dear  to  the  heart  of  man  by  their  sym- 
pathetic relations  with  the  gods. 

So,  in  the  Hindu  epic,  hosts  of  gigantic  bears  and 
apes,  endowed  with  magic  powers  to  change  Inthe 
their  forms  at  will  and  control  the  forces  of Hindu  epos- 
nature,  devote  all  their  energies  to  aid  the  holy  cause 
of  Rama  in  recovering  his  stolen  Sita.  There  is  no 
obstacle  too  vast  for  their  passionate  zeal  and  might 
to  surmount,  no  service  too  noble  or  too  delicate  for 
their  love  to  render.  The  Indian  poet  dares  ascribe 
to  the  beasts  of  the  forests,  under  this  inspiration,  all 
the  chaste  and  heroic  virtues  of  chivalry ;  and  no 
Minnesinger  ever  celebrated  an  ideal  of  purer  honor 
or  nobler  loyalty  than  "god -like  Jatayus,"  the 
vulture-king,  or  the  titanic  ape  Hanuman,2  who 
nevertheless  tears  up  whole  mountains  in  his  arms, 

1  The  Bird,  p.  148.  2  Ramdy.,  V. 


534 


RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 


destroys  myriads  of  foes  single-handed,  and  expands 
his  bulk  at  will,  ten  leagues  at  a  time.  And  these 
surpassingly  helpful  brutes  are  incarnations  of  gods ; 
associated  too  with  the  elements,  and  forms  of  nature, 
as  sons  of  the  sun,  of  the  sky,  of  fire,  of  the  wind. 
So  that  the  Hindu  epic,  like  the  Egyptian  myth, 
makes  religion  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  the 
brute,  the  human,  and  the  natural  worlds. 

The  Ramayana  even  beautifully  interweaves  this 
tenderness  towards  the  lower  animals  with  the 
origin  of  its  own  rhythmic  movements  as  poetry. 
The  hermit  Valmiki,  seeing  the  distress  of  a  female 
heron  whose  partner  has  been  shot  by  a  hunter,  utters 
a  reproof  to  the  wanton  sportsman  for  destroying  the 
bird  that  murmured  so  softly  as  it  went ;  and  the  gods 
made  that  rhythm  which  the  words  of  sorrow  (soka) 
spontaneously  assumed  the  metre  {sloka)  in  which  he 
should  celebrate  the  praise  of  Rama. 

I  recall  nothing  in  English  literature  that  resembles 
this  delicacy  of  poetic  sentiment,  so  much  as  Walter 
Savage  Landor's  idyl  of  the  peasant,  who,  striking 
impatiently  at  a  buzzing  insect,  "  breaks  the  wing  of  a 
bee  and  the  heart  of  a  hamadryad  at  once." 

In  the  Mahabharata  legend  of  the  exile  of  the  Pan- 
dava  princes,  one  of  these  brothers,  who  are  divine 
incarnations,  dreams  that  the  wild  creatures  of  the 
forest  come  to  him  trembling  and  weeping,  and  im- 
plore him  to  spare  what  few  had  escaped  the  terrible 
hunters,  that  they  might  be  free  from  terror,  and 
multiply  their  race  once  more.  And  he  is  moved 
with  pity,  and  tells  his  brothers  how  the  creatures 
had  implored  his  mercy;  whereat  they  depart  from 
the  forest,  and  dwell  in  another  place.1 

1  Mahabh.,  II. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  535 

"  Beneath  human  castes,"  exclaims  Michelet  again, 
who  may  be  called  the  literary  apostle  of  a  new 
gospel  of  sympathy  with  the  animal  creation,  "  there 
lies  an  immense  caste,  the  poor  brute  world,  to  be 
delivered,  to  be  lifted  up.  This  is  the  triumph  of 
India,  of  Rama  and  the  Ramayana.  Hanuman 
is  the  Ulysses  and  Achilles  of  this  epic  war.  More 
than  any  one  else  he  delivers  Sita.  After  the  victory, 
Rama  crowns  and  celebrates  him.  Between  the  two 
armies,  before  men  and  gods,  Rdma  and  Hanuman 
embrace.  Talk  no  more  of  castes.  The  lowest  of 
men  may  say,  Hanuman  has  freed  me."  x  Modern 
science,  we  may  add,  in  the  hands  of  our  develop- 
ment philosophy,  may  yet  enforce  from  the  physiolog- 
ical side  the  genial  lesson  of  this  ancient  song. 

The  mercy  due  from  man  to  the  brute  life  dependent 
on  his  care,  or  ministering  to  his  desires,  is  a  lesson 
indeed  only  to  be  learned  of  the  East.  It  is  e°™ 
a  touching  and  noble  bequest  she  has  laid  up  for  ages, 
and  gives  over  at  last  to  the  proud  civilization  that  in 
other  respects  has  outrun  her,  —  in  proof  that  she  is 
still  able  to  inspire  and  advance  mankind.  Judaism 
indeed  had  many  noble  humanities  of  this  sort ;  but 
Christian  teaching  —  almost,  if  not  altogether,  absorbed 
in  man  —  has  seldom  emphasized  a  tender  brotherhood 
with  nature  in  her  humbler  living  forms.  "  To  bring 
these  things  within  the  range  of  ethics,"  says  Lecky, 
"  to  create  the  notion  of  duties  towards  the  animal 
world,  has,  so  far  as  Christian  countries  are  concerned, 
been  one  of  the  peculiar  merits  of  the  last  century, 
and  for  the  most  part  of  Protestant  nations.  How- 
ever fully  we  may  recognize  the  humane  spirit  trans- 
mitted to  the  world,  in  the  form  of  legends,  from  the 

1  Bible  de  I ' Humanite,  pp.  59,  75. 


53^  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

saints  of  the  desert,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
inculcation  of  humanity  to  animals  on  a  wide  scale  is 
mainly  the  work  of  a  recent  and  a  secular  age  ;  and 
that  the  Mohammedans  and  the  Brahmins  have  in  this 
sphere  considerably  surpassed  the  Christians."  x 

After  eighteen  centuries  of  barbarity  in  this  sphere 
of  our  relations,  —  the  revelations  whereof,  in  its  actual 
condition,  are  to  the  last  degree  revolting,  —  the  civ- 
ilized West  is  just  beginning  to  awake  to  the  duty 
of  protecting  our  "  dumb  neighbors," 9  and  to  ask 
whether  the  "  beasts  that  perish "  do  not  turn  the 
tables,  in  the  argument  of  immortality  itself,  upon 
the  master,  whose  cruelties  towards  them  mock  his 
own  special  claim  to  be  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
We  may  yet  appreciate  Landor's  tender  tribute  to 
his  dog:  "few  saints  have  been  so  good-tempered, 
and  not  many  so  wise." 

And  in  this  point  of  view  Art  has  a  mission,  never 
Amission  accepted,  as  it  should  have  been,  by  Christian 
for  an.  schools.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Ruskin, 
who  regards  sympathy  with  the  lower  animals  as  one 
of  the  "  great  English  gifts  "  in  art,  but  admits  that  it  is 
yet  "  quite  undeveloped,"  expresses  the  hope  that  "  the 
aid  of  physiology  and  the  love  of  adventure  will  enable 
us  to  give  to  the  future  inhabitants  of  the  globe  an 
almost  perfect  record  of  the  present  forms  of  animal 
life  upon  it,  of  which  many  are  on  the  point  of  being 
extinguished." 

Under  these  larval  masks,  as  the  old  philosophies 
The  masks  affirmed,  hide  the  dear  and  venerable  gods 
of  the  gods,  themselves,  or  the  spirits  of  men,  who  shall 

1  European  Morals,  II.  188. 

2  There  are  now  in  Europe,  as  appears  from  a  recent  address  at  Philadelphia,  between 
one  and  two  hundred  societies  for  the  protection  of  animals,  composed  largely  of  eminent 
men  and  women  ;  and  the  number  is  rapidly  increasing. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  537 

one  day  reveal  their  ancient  lives,  now  under  a  tran- 
sient spell  of  oblivion.  And  is  not  our  own  science 
inquiring  at  this  day,  in  pure  respect  for  what  educa- 
tion is  doing  for  the  brute  mind,  and  by  the  simple 
logic  that  demands  compensation  in  a  future  state  for 
unrelieved  miseries  in  this, — if  the  brutes  are  not 
immortal? 

It  is  not  easy,  probably  it  is  not  possible,  to  discover 
the  special  grounds  which  led  to  the  consecra-  n.  .    , 

■*■  o  Origin  of 

tion  of  each  form  of  animal  life.  The  sym- animal  wor- 
bolism  of  the  living  world  is  past  exhausting, s  ip' 
and  cannot  be  dogmatically  defined.  Cicero's  theory 
that  utility  was  the  basis  of  animal  worship  is  inade- 
quate :  the  utility  of  a  creature  can  never  fully  account 
for  its  becoming  an  object  of  adoration.  Plutarch's 
divinations  of  its  meaning  in  special  cases  are  often 
ingenious,  but  as  often  fanciful  and  unsatisfactory. 
The  faith  of  the  Egyptians,  according  to  Diodorus, 
was  that  the  gods,  having  while  weak  found  refuge 
from  danger  in  animal  forms,  made  these  sacred  out  of 
gratitude,  when  they  came  to  their  thrones.1  This  is  at 
least  an  intimation  of  belief  in  sympathetic  relations 
and  moral  ties  reaching  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest 
forms  of  life.  Plutarch  ridicules  the  legend  ;  but  his 
own  theory  goes  further,  and  more  philosophically, 
in  the  same  direction.  While  condemning  the  excess 
to  which  animal  worship  was  carried  in  Egypt,  he 
touches  what  was  doubtless  the  spiritual  fact  rudely 
expressed  by  this  form  of  religion,  in  the  following 
passage  from  his  Isis  and  Osiris :  "  On  the  whole,  we 
should  approve  those  who  honor  not  so  much  those 
creatures  as  the  divine  in  them,  and  hold  them  as 
clear  and  natural  mirrors,  the  instrument  and  art  of 

1  Diod.,  I.  86. 


538  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  all-ordaining  God.  Whatever  nature  lives  and  sees 
and  has  motion  in  itself,  and  the  knowledge  of  what  is 
proper  for  itself  and  for  others,  this  nature  derives, 
as  Heraclitus  says,  an  efflux,  or  portion,  from  that 
Ruler  whose  wisdom  governs  all." 1  And  Herodotus 
confirms  this  hint  of  a  universal  idea,  when  he  tells  us 
that  all  animals,  both  wild  and  domestic,  were  alike 
sacred  in  Egypt.2 

Herbert  Spencer's  idea,3  that  the  habit  of  nicknam- 
ing men  from  their  resemblances  to  animals  would 
naturally  result  with  their  descendants  in  the  notion 
that  these  animals  were  in  fact  the  ancestors,  and 
hence  deserved  religious  honors,  goes  but  a  little 
way  in  accounting  for  the  piety  of  the  ancients 
towards  inferior  creatures.  The  processes  here  de- 
scribed involve  the  very  sentiment  which  they  are 
adduced  to  explain.  We  might  as  well  suppose  it  to 
be  due  to  the  equally  ancient  as  well  as  modern  habit 
of  naming  animals  for  men,  either  in  irony  or  whim, 
as  we  dub  dogs  and  birds  ;  or  for  honor,  like  the  great 
names  of  famous  race  horses,  formed  upon  those  of 
their  owners,  which  we  find  recorded  in  old  Latin 
inscriptions ;  or  for  protection,  as  the  old  Latian 
herdsmen  used  to  name  duly  every  sheep  or  heifer, 
sometimes  after  the  most  noted  families  in  Italy.  In 
fact  such  solutions  merely  illustrate  the  closeness  of 
the  ties  which  have  always  united  man  with  the  brute 
creatures.  They  do  not  go  to  the  root  of  the  old 
piety,  which  is  explicable  only  as  a  natural  instinctive 
disposition  in  man  to  feel  respect,  not  alone  for  what 
is  stronger,  but  for  what  is  weaker  than  himself.     The 


1  De  hide,  LXXVI.  s  Herod.,  II.  65. 

8  Recent  Discussions  in  Science.     So  Lubbock,  Origin  of  Civiliz.,  p.  178. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  539 

lowest  tribes  of  savages  have  the  custom  of  apologiz- 
ing to  the  animals  which  they  kill.1 

The  conditions  required  for  a  sympathetic  and 
religious  feeling  towards  the  animal  world,  Hindusens 
which  have  been  described,  were  all  supplied  of  the  unity 
by  the  mystical  faith  of  the  Hindus  in  the  ° 
unity  of  life.  All  creatures  were  one ;  one  in  the 
sacredness  of  life  as  such,  in  its  very  idea  ;  2  one  in 
the  thread  of  intelligence  that  traversed  its  unbroken 
chain  of  forms,  and  could  not  well  be  severed  any- 
where ;  and  one  in  those  delicate  relations  and  affi- 
nities which  give  ground  for  ethical  and  spiritual 
symbolism.  In  these  aspects,  intensified  by  the  love 
of  suppressing  distinctions  and  melting  barriers  and 
blending  forms,  the  unity  of  life  gave  ample  scope  for 
the  play  of  metempsychosis,  or  the  transmutation  of 
vital  forces.  We  may  perhaps  define  this  almost 
universal  belief  of  races  without  scientific  culture 
as  the  earliest  analogue  of  our  modern  doctrine  of 
the  unity  and  correlation  of  forces. 

The  transmigration-faith  was,  therefore,  so  widely 
spread  in  the  elder  world,  because  it  had  its  Risumi 
roots  in  natural  and  profound  aspirations.  It 
combined  the  twofold  intuition  of  immortality  and 
moral  sequence  with  that  mystic  sense  of  the  unity 
of  being  which  is  a  germ  of  the  highest  religious 
truth.  And  just  as  in  early  Christianity,  which  tended 
to  reject  the  outward  world,  and  confined  its  sympathy 
to  the  human  and  the  angelic  spheres,  Origen  had  his 
transmigrations  and  "circuits"  of  souls,  —  but  through 
those  spheres  only,  —  so  in  Hinduism   a  larger  reach 

1  Lubbock,  p.  184. 

!  See  remarks  on  the  unity  of  life,  as  conceived  by  the  Egyptians,  in  H.  Martineau's 
Eastern  Life  (p.  212),  one  of  the  most  remarkable  works  of  the  present  century. 


540  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  the  sense  of  oneness  through  the  whole  universe 
made  transmigration  a  circuit  that  swept  animal  and 
even  vegetable  life  also.  And  we  are  to  bear  in  mind 
also,  how  imperfect  was  the  sense  of  individuality  in 
the  mystical  Hindu  consciousness.  It  was  only  too 
easy  here  to  infer  one's  private  destiny  from  the  infinite 
convertibility  of  forms  in  nature,  the  ceaseless  flow, 
and  shift,  and  lapse,  the  protean  play  that  seemed  to 
resolve  all  into  one. 

How   the    Hindus    solved    the    subtle    question  — 
whether  that  state    could  really  be  regarded 

Relation  to  . 

individual  as  a  continuation  of  the  personal  existence, 
llfe'  in  which  all  traces  of  the  past  were  effaced 

in  new  relations  of  being,  and  only  the  conse- 
quences of  previous  conduct  were  retained  as  deter- 
mining destiny  —  is  not  at  all  apparent.  But  the 
imagination  solves  all  problems  that  perplex  the  un- 
derstanding. A  certain  delight  in  illusion  itself  is  the 
life  of  the  transmigration  mythology,  and  has  every- 
where associated  it  with  magic,  witchcraft,  and  the 
power  given  by  talismans  and  spells  to  assume  animal 
forms  at  pleasure.1  And  it  is  not  probable  that  the 
forward  look  beyond  death  became  less  real  and  earn- 
est for  these  anticipations  of  what  to  us  would  seem  so 
like  positive  annihilation.  Doubtless  with  the  Hindus, 
as  afterwards  with  Pythagoras,  Plato,  and  the  Alex- 
andrian philosophers,2  this  whole  belief  hovered,  in 
poetic  dream,  in  the  blending  lights  of  mythology, 
rather  than  stood  definite  for  the  understanding,  or  in 
that  rigid  application  to  details  which  modern  habits 
of  thought  would  require.  Yet  it  was  not  for  that 
reason  less  real,  or  less  powerful  to  move  the  fears, 

1  See  Apuleius's  Golden  Ass- 

2  Simon,  Hist,  de  V Ecole  d '  Akxandrie,  I.  446,  590. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  54I 

the  desires,  or  the  affections  of  the  masses  of  men.  It 
was  not  reserved  for  Tertullian  1  to  reveal  the  fact  that 
the  self-contradictions  of  a  religious  mystery  make  it 
all  the  more  fascinating  to  an  unreasoning  faith. 

Regarding  all  life  as  at  heart  one  and  the  same 
with  that  which  stirred  within  him,  —  and  imprisoned 
profoundly  impressed  by  the  sense  of  moral  souls- 
retribution,  — the  thought  of  immortality,  too,  brood- 
ing over  him  past  escape,  —  it  was  simply  natural  for 
the  hermit  saint  to  cherish  the  belief  that  these  lower 
creatures,  with  their  mysterious  instincts  appealing  to 
him  in  so  many  ways  for  protection,  learning  in  so 
many  ways  to  comprehend  his  thought  and  fall  in  with 
his  habits,  were  the  souls  of  his  fathers  and  friends, 
who,  having  yielded  to  the  power  of  the  senses,  had 
sunk  into  correspondent  forms,  and  were  now  yearn- 
ing back  in  mournfulness  or  remorse  to  the  upright 
manhood  they  beheld  in  him.  At  the  same  time  a 
certain  awe  of  brute  life  as  possibly  incarnating  deity, 
the  exploration  of  it  to  find  intimations  of  spiritual 
truth,  of  duty,  and  of  love,  prevented  this  actual  ani- 
mal world  from  seeming  a  mere  field  of  retribution, 
and  threw  transmigration  for  its  harsher  penalties 
where  Christianity  also  went  for  its  hells,  into  vaguer 
invisible  spheres,  in  a  world  that  might  with  more  pro- 
priety be  called  future  than  these  animal  purgatories 
could  be. 

It  is  important  that  we  should  note  these  influences 
which    associated    transmigration   with    other  _   .  . 

0  Expiation 

ideas  and  interests  than  those  of  retribution ;   and  proba- 
since  the  natural  tendency  of  its  fatalism  would 
be,  if  not  counteracted,  to  make  the  present  life  itself 
appear  to  be  merely  a  process  of  expiating  past  of- 

1  "  Credo  quia  itnpossibile  est." 


542  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

fences,  ignoring  its  invitations  to  future  excellence. 
Such  stern  bondage  to  foregone  lives  does  not  enter 
into  the  theory  of  Christianity  ;  its  place  being  sup- 
plied in  the  creeds  by  a  similar  bondage  to  reward  and 
penalty  in  the  future  life,  through  the  belief  that  the 
essence  of  the  present  is  but  "  probation."  In  neither 
case  is  free  validity  accorded  to  the  living  moment,  as 
the  sphere  and  opportunity  of  the  spirit.  Both  in  the 
East  and  the  West,  the  affections  have  not  failed  to 
make  earnest  protest,  in  divers  ways,  against  the  dis- 
paragement. In  this  point  of  view  the  tender  regard 
of  Brahmanical  religion  for  the  animal  world,  in  which 
it  saw  the  fatalities  of  transmigration,  is  deserving  of 
special  attention. 

Metempsychosis,  indeed,  had  no  necessary  connec- 
tion with  penalty,  in  ancient  thought  as  such, 

Incidental  r  J  o 

relation  to  but  covered  a  broad  cosmical  conception ; 
penalty-  namely,  that  of  the  Unity  of  Life.  In  Egypt, 
for  example,  it  was  conceived  as  a  natural  and  orderly 
circuit  of  soul  through  the  various  forms  of  ljfe,  to  re- 
turn again  to  a  human  body  after  three  thousand  years.1 
And  in  the  funereal  inscriptions  of  that  country  it  is 
nowhere  found  unmistakably  associated  with  the  idea 
of  punishment.2  Pythagoras  and  Empedocles  allude 
to  it  as  a  natural  rather  than  a  retributory  process. 
The  former  "  recognizes  the  voice  of  his  friend  in  the 
howl"  of  a  beaten  dog,  and  interferes  to  protect  him. 
And  Empedocles  declared  himself  to  have  been  "  a 
boy,  a  girl,  a  bush,  a  bird,  a  fish,"  in  illustration  sim- 
ply of  the  general  truth  that  "  the  soul  inhabits  every 
form  of  animal  and  plant."3  Plato  comes  nearer  the 
notion  of  penalty ;  yet  in  no  wise  of  arbitrary  punish- 
ment, but  of  natural  moral  gravitation.     Among  the 

1  Herod.,  II.  123.         2  Kenrick,  Anc.  Egyjt,  I.  403.         s  Diog.  Laert.,  B.  vm. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  543 

"souls  that  have  lost  their  wings,"  those,  he  says, 
come  first  to  full  recovery  who  in  the  circuit  of  their 
human  births  have  insight  and  will  to  choose  the  nobler 
lives.  And  he  makes  the  same  law  preside  in  the  pas- 
sage through  lower  forms  of  animated  life  ;  each  soul, 
after  a  thousand  years,  choosing  such  form,  bestial  or 
human,  as  it  pleases.1  This  sense  of  moral  gravita- 
tion, or  of  the  natural  consequences  inherent  in  char- 
acter, tends  to  interweave  itself  with  all  theories  of 
transmigration  ;  and  we  can  frequently  detect  a  natural 
connection  between  certain  types  of  character  and  the 
special  forms  of  animal  life  to  which  the  law  books 
consign  these  types  after  death.2  Yet  we  can  by  no 
means  do  so  as  a  general  rule,  for  the  reason  that  this 
is  only  one  of  many  elements  in  the  composition  of  the 
idea  as  a  whole,  which  goes  back  upon  a  far  deeper 
ground  for  sympathy,  as  well  as  for  hopes  and  fears. 
The  unity  of  life,  more  or  less  recognized  by  all  races, 
made  metamorphosis  easy  and  simple ;  a  free  field 
for  all  spontaneities  of  human  expectation  and  desire. 
Thus  negro  slaves  transported  to  America  sought 
refuge  from  their  miseries  in  death,  in  the  hope  to  be 
born  again  in  the  body  of  a  child  in  their  native  land. 
Various  North-American  tribes  believe  that  the  soul 
of  a  dying  person  may  be  drawn  into  the  bosom  of  a 
sterile  woman,  or  blown  by  the  breath  into  that  of  the 
nearest  relative,  and  so  come  again  to  birth  in  the  way 
that  the  receiver  desires.3  It  is  of  course  needless  to 
do  more  than  refer  to  the  beautiful  mythology  of  meta- 
morphosis in  which  Greek  poetry  and  Hindu  fable 
so  thoroughly  delighted,  in  illustration  of  the  freedom 

1  Phadrus,  c  61.  2  See  Yajnavalkya,  III.  210. 

8  Brinton,  Myths  of  New  World,  p.  253. 


544  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

of  this  field  of  human  sympathy  from  all  necessary 
relation  to  retributory  suffering. 

In  Hindu  poetry,  every  creature  that  appears  in  the 
vast  tropical  jungle  of  illusion  through  which  you  are 
led  is  a  soul  in  disguise ;  a  mask  assumed  by  magic 
spell  or  in  personal  caprice,  for  purposes  good  or  evil, 
or  in  pure  love  of  changing  one's  form,  and  wander- 
ing through  the  wide  chambers  of  life.  The  special 
genius  of  the  poet  is  shown  in  the  surprise  effected  by 
the  fall  of  the  mask,  the  swift  escape  into  a  new  one ; 
in  the  flit  from  life  to  life,  as  of  a  spirit  everywhere  at 
home ;  and  in  the  swift  revulsions  of  pleasure  and 
pain  caused  by  the  play  of  such  illusion  upon  human 
emotions.  And  this  takes  off  the  edge  of  the  tragic 
furore  which  makes  so  large  a  part  of  these  old 
epics,  and  which  is  carried  to  such  a  pitch  of  destruc- 
tiveness  that  nothing  but  a  constant  sense  of  illusion 
could  render  it  endurable.  Here  too,  as  in  Veda  and 
Upanishad,  the  perpetual  lesson  is  the  indestructibility 
of  life,  the  resilience  of  the  soul  from  death,  and  its 
power  to  pass  unharmed  through  all  the  fires  of  ele- 
mental change. 

Yet,  as  has  been  already  said,  one  inevitable  ten- 
Hindu  dency  of  the  contemplative  life  in  India  was  to 
penalty,  regard  this  convertibility  of  forms  through  the 
oneness  of  being,  in  its  specially  moral  aspects.  The 
poets  who  unfolded  laws  of  spiritual  emancipation,  and 
the  ascetics  who  sought  to  fulfil  them,  would  natu- 
rally emphasize  penalty  in  connection  with  bestial 
transformation,  assigning  the  future  of  human  vices 
and  passions  to  those  forms  of  animal  life  to  which 
they  seemed  to  bear  a  resemblance.  And  the  point 
most  worth  our  notice  is,  that,  looking  upon  life  in  so 


TRANSMIGRATION.  545 

many  of  these  forms  as  symbolical  at  least  of  punish- 
ment, they  yet  showed  a  tenderness  towards  them 
which  could  have  no  other  cause  than  the  desire  to 
alleviate  this  remedial  pain,  and  to  help  on  the  process 
of  purgation,  that  the  imprisoned  souls  might  at  last  be 
freed. 

I  speak  of  the  Hindu  Inferno  as  remedial :  I  do  not 
deny  that  the  punishment  of  the  worst  is  often  spoken 
of  as  if  final.  Herder's  idea  of  a  threefold  division  of 
the  forms  of  transmigration  into  ascending,  descending, 
and  circular,  will  not  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  classifica- 
tion of  systems.  In  the  Hindu  faith  we  find  all  three 
combined.  But  the  result  of  this  very  fact  is  that  the 
idea  of  ascent  and  final  unity  with  God  is  predomi- 
nant. The  very  notion  of  circuit  and  return  implies 
that  the  basis  of  penalty  is  preservation ;  and  the  ab- 
sorption of  the  whole  into  a  divine  unity  points  clearly 
to  an  instinctive  resolution  of  evil  into  good. 

The  Hindu  imagination  indeed,  like  Christian 
Dante's,  brooded  over  the  capabilities  of  penal  suffer- 
ing in  the  spiritual  organization  of  man.1  Manu 
represents  the  vital  spirit  of  the  wicked,  as  furnished 
with  a  coarser  body,  expressly  provided  with  nerves 
susceptible  of  extreme  torment ;  while  that  of  the  good 
shall  have  a  body  formed  of  pure  elementary  particles, 
as  closely  related  to  delight  in  the  celestial  spheres.2 
And  according  as  the  qualities  of  goodness,  passion, 
or  darkness  prevail,  do  these  spirits  become  deities,  or 
men,  or  beasts,  after  death.  In  proportion  as  sensual 
desires  are  indulged,  does  the  acuteness  of  these 
sheathed  and  preparatory  senses  become  intensified.3 

1  For  the  dismal  record  of  transmigration  penalties,  see  Manu,  ch.  xii.  and  Y&jna- 
valkya,  III.  206-215. 

2  Manu,  XII.  20,  40. 

3  Compare  Buckle's  account  of  Calvinism,  Hist,  of  Civil-,  vol.  ii. 

35 


546  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Eastern  imagination  herein,  as  in  other  matters, 
its  limits  a^ows  itself  freer  scope  to  paint  the  horrors  of 
penalty,  from  the  fact  that  it  is  so  unconscious 
of  any  thing  like  literal  and  practical  intention ;  a 
palliative  more  or  less  admissible  in  the  case  of  any 
religion,  when  we  would  interpret  its  dogmas  of  future 
retribution.  In  addition  to  this  last,  perhaps  question- 
able, protective  element,  a  certain  tenderness  and  plas- 
ticity of  the  natural  sensibilities  comes  in,  to  save  the 
Hindus  from  affirming  everlasting  penalty  as  a  complete 
and  conscious  principle  of  faith. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  inevitable  return  of  the  uni- 
verse, through  whatsoever  "wombs  of  pain,"  to  the 
bosom  of  the  Supreme,  emphasized  by  the  mystical 
Vedanta  as  the  substance  of  faith,  the  Law  of  Manu 
itself  in  one  passage  distinctly  affirms  the  "  restoration 
of  the  wicked."  l  Yajnavalkya  also  describes  the  re- 
turn of  the  vicious  through  these  purgations  to  their 
original  better  status  and  to  new  opportunity.2 

At  worst  this  Inferno  of  Transmigration,  with  all 
its  fantastic  torments  and  their  inconceivable  durations, 
has  not  so  relentless  a  spirit  towards  the  offender  as  is 
involved  in  the  developed  Christian  dogma  of  endless 
punishment.  And  it  is  by  no  means  so  likely  to  sug- 
gest itself  to  the  reader  of  the  Vedas,  the  philosophies, 
the  epics,  or  the  dramas,  that  deity  was  held  to  be 
glorified  by  the  joy  of  saints  over  these  penal  miseries 
of  the  wicked,  as  that  a  certain  compassionate  love,  as 
of  a  protector,  and  deliverer,  was  thought  due  from 
man  to  the  lower  creatures ;  though  they  must  have 
been  regarded  as  representatives  of  a  doom  justly 
inflicted  upon  human  vice. 

1  Manu,  XII.  22.     See  Elphinstone,  quoted  in  Allen's  India,  p.  430. 

2  YajnaV;  III.  217,  218. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  547 

On  the  other  hand,  as  the  system  became  more  and 
more  elaborate,,  it  must,  like  analogous  schemes  in 
other  religions,  have  lent  abundant  material  for  the 
purposes  of  the  priesthood  ;  whose  control  over  these 
tremendous  mysteries  of  a  future  life  secured  them 
mastery  over  mind  and  conscience  in  the  present. 

Bishop  Heber,  in  view  of  these  and  kindred  super- 
stitions, denounced  the  Hindu  religion  as  the  worst  he 
ever  heard  of.  Yet  he  has  himself  paid  high  tributes 
to  the  virtues  that  could  grow  in  its  soil.  And  the 
records  of  Christianity  might  well  make  us  beware  of 
judging  a  whole  faith  by  its  least  creditable  fruits.  It 
may  help  to  a  fairer  judgment,  even  of  metempsychosis, 
to  recall  the  fine  Mahabharata  legend  of  King  Judish- 
thira ;  who,  after  the  woful  strife  of  kindred  chiefs  is 
over,  striving  to  reach  separation  from  the  world  by 
journeying  to  the  holy  mountain,  and  seeing  all  his 
noble  brothers  fall  by  the  way,  because  not  redeemed 
by  their  sufferings  from  pride,  or  ambition,  or  over- 
weening affections,  reaches  the  presence  of  Indra, 
followed  only  by  his  dog:  heaven  opens  before  him, 
but  he  will  not  enter  without  this  faithful  companion. 

"  Away  with  that  felicity  whose  price  is  to  abandon  the  faithful. 
Yon  poor  creature,  in  fear  and  distress,  hath  trusted  in  my  power 

to  save  it . 
Not  for  e'en  life  itself  will  I  break  my  plighted  word." 

Admitted  by  Indra,  he  finds  his  lost  relatives  are  not 
in  heaven,  but  consigned  to  the  regions  of  torment ; 
whither  descending  he  bids  the  angel  leave  him,  that  he 
may  share  their  misery  ;  then  wakes  to  find  the  spec- 
tacle an  illusion,  to  test  the  constancy  of  his  love.1 
Hardly  less   significant  is  the  mythical  account,  in 

1  Makabk.,  VI.  The  story  may  be  found  in  Alger's  Orie7ital  Poetry,  with  a  striking 
translation  of  the  passage. 


548  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  same  epic,  of  the  renewal  of  human  life  itself 
after  the  great  Deluge  of  Manu,  through  the  tender- 
ness of  this  saint  towards  the  lower  creatures.  He 
saves  a  little  fish  pursued  by  larger  ones,  which 
proves  to  be  Brahma  in  disguise  ;  and  after  transfer- 
ring it  from  place  to  place  as  it  grows,  till  at  last  the 
Ganges  cannot  hold  it,  he  receives  from  its  gratitude 
the  reward  of  his  labors.  The  now  gigantic  fish 
warns  him  of  the  coming  destruction  of  mankind,  and 
guides  his  ark  through  the  great  waters,  from  which 
he  emerges  to  repeople  the  earth. 

We  have  indicated  the  origin  of  this  profound 
spiritual  Oriental  belief,  in  genuine  religious  and  moral 
significance.  instincts.  How  far  other  experiences  of  a  more 
subtle  character  may  have  helped  to  suggest  it,  —  such 
as  the  peculiar  sense  of  reminiscence  and  recognition, 
as  of  former  states  of  being,  which  physicists  ascribe 
to  the  double  action  of  the  brain,  — it  is  now  impossi- 
ble to  determine.  But,  whatever  its  relation  to  a  future 
life,  transmigration,  or  at  least  metamorphosis,  is  cer- 
tainly a  spiritual  fact,  true  of  the  present  life.  "Be 
not,"  says  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  in  his  quaint  way, 
"  under  any  brutal  metempsychosis  while  thou  livest 
and  walkest  about  erectly  under  the  form  of  man. 
Leave  it  not  disputable  at  last,  since  thou  art  a  com- 
position of  man  and  beast,  how  thou  hast  predomi- 
nantly passed  thy  days."  "When  men  lose  their 
virtue,"  asks  Boethius  still  more  plainly,  "do  they  not 
also  lose  their  human  nature  ?  You  cannot  esteem 
him  to  be  a  man,  whom  you  see  transformed  by  his 
vices.  Whoever  leaves  off  to  be  virtuous  ceases  to 
be  human.  And,  since  he  cannot  attain  to  a  divine 
nature,  he  is  turned  into  a  beast."  * 

1  Consol,  of  Philosophy,  IV.  iv. 


TRANSMIGRATION.  549 

That  the  lower  types  of  animal  life  are  somehow 
taken  up  as  constituent  elements  of  the  human  is  an 
instinct  of  sentiment  and  a  fact  of  scientific  observa- 
tion. Embryological  stages  alone  might  almost  war- 
rant a  literal  truth  to  that  old  mystical  philosophy 
which  makes  every  man  carry  a  beast  within  his  body, 
"  wherewith,  being  plagued  or  else  amused,  the  captive 
soul  doth  bring  itself  into  a  bestial  figure."1  Dire 
possibilities  suggest  themselves  in  the  reflection  that 
we  are  equally  ignorant  how  the  brute  came  to  exist 
outside  us,  as  an  express  image  of  our  rude  instincts, 
and  how  it  came  to  appear  within  us,  as  larval  phase 
and  moral  quality.  That  there  are  limits  in  human 
nature  to  actual  transmutation  in  the  descending  line 
may  fairly  be  presumed,  at  least  so  long  as  science 
fails,  with  all  its  intimations  and  inferences,  to  show 
us  even  the  animal  man  in  the  act  of  ascending  out 
of  the  brute.  And  more  than  this  :  our  personality 
is  a  spiritual  essence  that  resists  solution  ;  a  mystery 
as  indefinable  by  science  as  by  superstition  ;  a  secret 
that  has  not  yielded  either  to  the  dream  of  metemp- 
sychosis or  to  the  study  of  specific  origin,  to  divina-* 
tion  of  the  future  or  to  exploration  of  the  past. 
Darwin  may  track  it  this  way,  or  Manu  th'at :  the 
subtle  genius  will  not  be  hunted  to  its  lair. 

But  the  interweaving  of  the  higher  and  lower  lives, 
the  divine  and  the  bestial,  remains :  it  was  as  real  to 
the  earlier  as  to  the  later  consciousness  of  man,  that 
he  is  the  microcosm  of  life,  from  the  god  to  the 
worm.  There  was  evermore  a  warning  instinct,  the 
ceaseless  providence  of  a  secret  whisper,  "  Beware 
the  beast  thou  bearest  within." 

1  Jacob  Behmen's  Mysterium  Magnum. 


550  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Half  in  insight,  half  in  fear,  he  wove  his  impression 
into  dogma ;  and  on  that  arose  metempsychosis.  Its 
colossal  system  of  powers  and  penalties  weighed 
heavily  on  his  soul.  For  its  round  of  ages  and  forms 
was  a  bitter  one  to  travel ;  its  claim  for  all  types  of 
life  to  exercise  influence  on  his  destinies  was  an  over- 
whelming demand  ;  and  his  constant  yearning  was  to 
escape  this  circulation  through  the  manifold  stages 
of  existence,  and  to  mount  at  once  by  a  directer  path 
to  immortal  good.  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism,  with 
their  kindred  philosophies  have  sought  to  provide 
such  ways  of  escape,  as  Christianity  also  has  had  its 
fine  evasions  of  its  own  dismal  lore  of  eternal  punish- 
ment. 

But  metempsychosis  had  its  nobler  side.  It  asso- 
ciated itself  with  all  the  tenderness  of  yearning  and 
regret.  It  served  to  bring  out  man's  kindly  senti- 
ments, and  expand  them  through  the  whole  world 
of  animated  forms.  And  it  must  have  quickened 
the  aesthetic  and  poetic  sense  by  teaching  him  to 
trace  the  paths  of  that  tender  mystery  of  creative 
genius,  which  is  one  and  the  same  in  the  weaving  of 
a  sparrow's  nest  and  the  transitions  of  human  birth 
and  death. 

I  return  to  the  point  which  I  proposed  to  illustrate. 
sanity  of  This  circuit  of  metempsychosis  is  the  clearest 
nature.  possible  evidence,  for  our  study  of  the  early 
world,  before  practical  science  was,  that  man  cannot 
withdraw  himself,  even  by  religious  influence,  from 
a  saving  balance,  inherent  in  his  own  spiritual  ten- 
dencies and  demands.  The  Hindu,  dreamer  as  he 
was,  was  forced,  as  we  have  seen,  to  recognize  the 
visible  world  he  repelled,  and  to  find  religious  purpose 


TRANSMIGRATION'.  55 1 

in  its  forms  and  forces,  after  all.  He  could  not  make 
the  living  universe  flow  into  the  divine  life,  without 
acknowledging  the  flow  of  deity  through  the  whole 
living  universe.  Such  the  sanity  of  nature,  justifier 
alike  of  soul  and  sense. 


VII. 

RELIGIOUS     UNIVERSALITY. 


RELIGIOUS     UNIVERSALITY. 


/"CHRISTIANITY  indulges  the  hope  of  absorbing 
^-^  other  historical  religions,  and  sinking  their  christian 
sacred  names  and  symbols  in  its  own.     This expectations- 
anticipation  demands  our  notice,  as  bearing  directly  on 
the  interests  of  Universal  Religion. 

It  means,  substantially,  that  Christianity  has  confi- 
dent faith  in  its  own  adequacy  to  meet  universal  needs. 
A  like  self-reliance  is  to  be  noted  in  all  great  historic 
religions.  They  would  not  be  religions,  had  they 
not  this  instinct  of  universality.  In  proportion  to  the 
earnestness  of  its  conviction  has  each  refused  to  hide 
its  treasure,  and  hastened  forth  with  the  glad  tidings 
of  one  all-sufficing  gospel.  Judaism  made  the  world 
ring  with  its  cry  to  the  nations  to  come  up  and  serve 
Jehovah.  Buddhism  has  swept  a  third  of  mankind 
into  its  wide-open  folds  of  brotherhood.  Confucius 
sways  an  empire  of  empires,  and  China  entitles  her- 
self the  "Central  Kingdom."  The  religions  of  Moses, 
Jesus,  Mohammed, — religions  of  the  Desert  as  they 
are,  summoning  men  apart  to  intense  concentration 
on  personal  needs  and  exaltations,  to  a  burning  thirst 
for  living  waters, — have  transformed  their  passionate 
egotism  into  a  boundless  absolutism,  claiming  divine 


556  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

right  by  "  special  revelation  "  to  impose  their  formulas 
upon  all  mankind.  Even  Persian  Babism  parcels  out 
the  nations  of  the  earth  already,  by  anticipation,  among 
its  ambitious  chieftains.1 

All  great  religions  involve  this  assurance  of  a  right 
to  master  the  world  ;  and  the  method  is  now  the  sword, 
now  love  and  sacrifice,  now  prophetic  affirmation,  now 
the  proclamation  of  a  dogma  or  a  name.  However 
delusive  the  hope,  there  is  a  deeper  truth  than  its  own 
exclusiveness  allows  it  to  apprehend,  seeking  expres- 
sion in  its  dream. 

For  what  all  these  religions  are  really  affirming, 
however  unconsciously,  is  the  adequacy  of  the  human 
faculties  to  find  whatever,  as  spiritual  forces,  they  re- 
quire. The  confessors  of  each  faith  hold  their  own 
mode  of  satisfaction  to  be  valid  for  all  men,  only  be- 
cause they  know  that  all  men  have  one  nature.  But 
this  implies  that  the  power  and  the  right  of  obtaining 
such  satisfactory  solution  cannot  be  limited  to  them- 
selves. So  that  when  the  instinct  of  expansion  which 
impels  them  comes  to  be  really  comprehended,  all 
beliefs  that  assume  the  common  human  nature  to  be 
inadequate  should  drop  away  ;  and  all  exclusive  claims 
on  the  part  of  distinctive  religious  traditions  and  sym- 
bols to  represent  it  should  be  resigned. 

And  this  time  has  now  come,  more  fully  and  effec- 
tively than  at  any  former  period,  in  the  progress  of 
mutual  recognition  between  the  diverse  religions  of 
mankind.  Such  claims  are  now  a  real  bar  to  sympa- 
thy, and  can  form  no  element  of  that  unity  which  all 
our  experience  expects.  All  distinctive  religions  — 
and  Christianity  in  the  whole  history  of  its  relations 
with  Judaism  and  other  faiths  has  assumed  itself  to  be 

1  Gobineau,  p.  193. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  557 

one  of  these  —  are  fragmentary  and  imperfect:  if 
not  in  certain  ideal  aspects,  they  are  yet  positively  so 
when  regarded  as  alternatives  to  each  other ;  that  is, 
when  claiming  the  right  of  supplanting  and  excluding 
each  other's  definite  names,  symbols,  and  historical 
associations  in  the  world's  regard.'  Civilization  ac- 
knowledges its  debt  to  each,  respects  the  validity  of 
each  as  aspiration  on  the  same  ample  basis  of  a  com- 
mon spiritual  nature ;  but  holds  them  all  in  abeyance 
before  those  universal  ideas  and  that  complete  human 
culture,  of  which  their  specialities,  whether  personal, 
dogmatical,  or  mythological,  were  but  germs.  No 
distinctive  religion  can  fulfil  the  universal  functions  of 
our  civilization.  The  plea  that  it  is  itself  identical  with 
civilization,  or  exclusively  entitled  to  speak  in  its  name, 
cannot  now  be  entered  even  by  the  best  of  these  special 
organs  of  the  religious  sentiment.  It  cannot  monopo- 
lize truths  implicitly  contained  in  all  great  forms  of 
faith  ;  and,  however  natural  the  desire  to  make  it  cover 
all  that  is  for  the  "glory  of  God,"  it  cannot  ignore  the 
history  of  man.  Here  the  zeal  of  the  Christian  dis- 
ciple confounds  things  different  and  unequal.  The 
terms  Christianity  and  civilization  are  not  identical ; 
since  civilization  reports  the  whole  experience  of 
mankind,  whereof  this  concentration  on  the  person  of 
Jesus,  whether  in  its  recognized  or  its  heretical  forms, 
is  but  a  fragment.  Distinctive  Christianity  has  in  fact 
had  little  or  no  success  outside  the  Aryan  family  of 
nations  ;  and  in  the  most  advanced  of  these  it  is  losing 
its  hold,  and  passing  on  into  a  freer  theism.  Only 
the  blindness  of  an  exclusive  faith  can  expect  that 
the  hundreds  of  millions  of  the  Oriental  world,  now 
brought  to  our  doors,  are  to  bow  down  to  the  name  of 
Jesus,  and  adopt  Christian  symbolism  ;  and  this  at  a 


558  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

time  when  historical  criticism  is  claiming  for  Judaism 
much  of  that  very  ethical  and  spiritual  wisdom  which 
has  hitherto  been  supposed  original  with  the  prophet 
of  Nazareth.  As  well  expect  Christendom  to  worship 
God  under  the  sole  name  of  Brahma,  or  Mahomet  as 
His  only  prophet. 

The  very  fact  that  Christianity  makes  exclusive 
claims  in  the  name  of  a  central  historical  person,  to 
say  nothing  of  positive  church  or  creed,  proves  that  it 
cannot  become  the  universal  religion.  Nothing  indeed 
is  more  irrational  than  to  expect  old  civilizations  to 
exchange  their  ancestral  scriptures  and  mediatorial 
names  for  those  of  other  races.  It  is  as  nearly  im- 
possible as  any  change  can  well  be.  They  will  escape 
their  own  idolatries  in  this  kind,  not  to  fall  into  others, 
but  to  be  freed  into  that  religion  of  universal  and 
eternal  truth  which  transcends  all  such  limitations. 
"This  is  my  religion,"  said  a  Siamese  nobleman  to  a 
Christian  missionary  :  "to  be  so  little  tied  to  the  world 
that  I  can  leave  it  without  regret ;  to  keep  my  heart 
sound ;  to  live  doing  no  injustice  to  any,  but  deeds  of 
compassion  to  all."  To  convince  him  that  he  had  so 
sinned  as  to  need  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ  was 
beyond  the  power  of  the  proselyter,  who  succeeded 
only  in  making  him  the  more  certain  that  his  own 
religion  was  the  better  of  the  two.1 

I  can  conceive  no  reason  for  believing  that  either 
the  Tews,  the  Chinese,  or  the  Hindus  are  des- 

Inadequacy  **  .  , 

of  distinctive  tined  to  become  members  of  what  is  called  the 
religions.     «  Body  of  Christ>»     The  Spirit  has  something 

better  in  store  for  mankind  than  to  hang  fastened  on 
one  historical  name  or  idealization.  The  various  reli- 
gions, like  the  various  races,  are  brought  together  at 

1  Bowring's  Joitmal  of  Embassy  to  Siam-,  I.  37S. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  559 

last,  to  rebuke  conceit  of  special  claims,  and  secure 
the  largest  appreciation  of  God  in  Man.  To  stand 
where  this  appreciation  is  possible  is  the  first  of  duties. 
"The  leaves  of  God's  book,"  says  a  Moslem  proverb, 
"  are  the  religious  persuasions."  It  is  time  to  read  that 
book  with  open  heart  and  mind.  And  there  is  no 
enforcement  of  the  lesson  more  convincing  than  that 
which  is  coming  in  the  almost  total  failure  of  mission- 
ary effort  in  the  great  empires  of  the  East. 

Poor  Abbe  Dubois,  after  thirty  years'  devoted  mis- 
sionary labor  in  India,  not  only  pronounced  his  Christian 
belief  that  the  Hindus  could  not  be  converted,  missions  in 
and  that  Christianity  had  done  its  work  in  the 
direction  of  heathenism,  — but  confessed,  "  with  shame 
and  confusion,"  that  he  "did  not  remember  any  Hindu 
who  had  embraced  Christianity  from  conviction  and 
from  disinterested  motives,"  and  that  those  converts 
who  continued  in  the  church  were  "  the  very  worst  in 
his  flock."  That  the  Protestant  missions  have  even 
less  to  boast  of  than  the  Catholic,  in  the  matter  of  past 
success  or  present  promise,  will  be  sufficiently  clear 
to  any  one  who  glances  over  the  pages  of  Tennent, 
Anderson,  or  Kaye. 

I  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  this  special  topic  fur- 
ther than  to  notice  what  is  generally  admitted,  —  that 
the  converts  to  Christianity  in  India  come  almost  exclu- 
sively from  among  that  miserable  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation which  is  naturally  open  to  the  influences  of 
any  missionary  enterprise,  of  whatsoever  faith.  Mr. 
Wheeler  says  2  that  the  current  of  national  religious 
ideas,  "  flowing  in  channels  unknown  and  unappreciated 
by  the  Western  world,  has  rendered  Christianity  less 
acceptable  to  the  civilized  Hindus  of  the  plains  than  to 

1  Hist,  of  India,  II.  661. 


560  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  barbarous  aborigines  who  inhabit  the  hills."  "  Of 
the  one  hundred  and  twelve  thousand  converts  in  the 
whole  of  India,"  wrote  Monier  Williams  in  1861, 
"ninety-one  thousand  have  been  obtained  in  the  south, 
and  of  these  not  more  than  three  thousand  belong  to 
the  race  of  Hindus  proper.  The  greatest  missionary 
success  has  been  among  the  Shanars,  a  low  caste 
not  Hindus  by  race  or  religion,  whose  business  is 
to  extract  the  juice  used  for  toddy  from  the  palmyra 
palm."1  "In  all  Bengalese  converts  not  a  Mohamme- 
dan is  on  record."  2 

On  the  intelligent  and  reflecting  class  Christianity 
makes  little  or  no  impression.  "Though  the  Hindus 
respect  the  precepts  of  Christianity,"  says  Miss  Car- 
penter very  candidly,3  "  and  hold  the  morality  of  the 
Bible  in  high  esteem,  to  the  reception  of  Christianity 
they  feel  insuperable  difficulties.  Their  faith  in  their 
own  sacred  writings  having  been  shaken,  they  do  not 
willingly  accept  any  other  revelation,"  —  naturally 
enough,  we  should  say.  "  It  is  impossible  for  them 
to  accept  miracles  under  any  circumstances," —  a  still 
more  obvious  necessity,  having,  had  quite  enough  to 
do  with  them  already.  "And  they  regard  a  Christian 
convert  as  a  renegade," — very  much  as  a  Christian 
sect  regards  those  who  abandon  it  for  another,  it 
may  be.  But  in  these  and  other  ways  this  estimable 
philanthropist,  whose  efforts  for  the  practical  education 
of  the  Hindus,  and  especially  for  the  emancipation  of 
women  from  their  present  deplorable  condition,  are 
deserving  of  all  praise,  endeavors  to  explain  the  unde- 
niable failure  of  missionary  efforts  among  the  better 
classes  in  India. 

1  Lecture  on  the  Study  of  Sanskrit,  p.  39, 

2  Tennent's  Christianity  in  Ceylon,  p.  64. 
s  Six  Months  in  India,  II.  71,  72. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  561 

Mr.  Kaye  points  to  another  serious  obstacle  to 
these  efforts,  which  simply  proves  what  intelligent 
Hindus  have  had  good  chances  to  learn,  the  vanity 
of  all  pretensions  on  the  part  of  special  religions  to 
monopolize  "  saving  "  power.  "  During  the  first  cen- 
tury of  our  connection  with  India,  not  only  was  noth- 
ing done  for  Christianity,  but  much  against  it.  We 
found  the  name  of  Christian  little  better  than  synonyme 
for  devil.  Compared  with  the  lives  of  our  own  peo- 
ple, those  of  the  natives  really  appeared  to  glow  with 
excellent  morality."1  If  it  be  true  that,  as  an  intel- 
ligent American  traveller  observes,  "India  is  rising 
from  degradation  through  intercourse  with  Christian 
nations,"  while  yet  "  the  dealings  of  England  with 
India  have  been  any  thing  but  Christian,"  —  it  is  cer- 
tainly natural  that  the  Hindus  should  discover  that  the 
good  which  Western  civilization  is  bringing  them  does 
not  depend  on  the  power  of  its  special  religious 
doctrines  over  the  conduct  of  their  confessors.  What 
divine  authority  to  rule  men  can  they  ascribe  to  a  re- 
ligion which  forbids  caste,  —  while  the  Englishman, 
pluming  himself  on  its  monopoly  of  God,  contemns 
their  wisest  men  for  their  heathen  birth  and  culture, 
or  expects  every  Hindu  to  "  make  him  a  salaam  "  as 
he  passes  by? 

Absurd  and  irrational  dogmas,  assumptions  of 
divine  right  to  prescribe  forms  of  belief  and  personal 
allegiance,  are  as  readily  detected  by  intelligent  Hin- 
dus as  by  other  men ;  and,  when  enforced  by  the 
threat  of  eternal  punishment  by  a  foreign  God  for  non- 
belief  in  a  Christ  who  is  made  their  representative, 
must  be  in  the  highest  degree  repulsive  and  even  con- 
temptible to  all  thoughtful  people  in  India,  whether 

1  Christianity  in  India,  pp.  41,  43. 
36 


562  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

believers  m  the  national  religion  or  not.  I  pass  over 
this  cause  of  missionary  failure,  as  too  obvious  to  be 
dwelt  on. 

The  discord  of  Christian  sects  probably  stands  in 
the  way  of  missionary  success  as  much  as  the  charac- 
ter of  Christian  dogma.  When  the  Protestant  preach- 
ers represent  the  Catholic  as  little  better  than  the 
heathen,  the  Hindus  honestly  ask,  "Why  should  we 
become  Christians,  when  you  tell  us  that  three-quar- 
ters the  Christian  world  have  adopted  a  creed  no 
better  than  our  own?  "*  The  Jesuits  forged  a  Veda, 
which  they  called  Ezourvedam.  The  Dutch  cut  off 
the  nose  of  the  statue  of  St.  Thomas  the  apostle, 
presumed  founder  of  Christianity  in  India,  knocked  it 
full  of  nails,  and  shot  it  out  of  a  mortar.  Denounc- 
ing each  other's  creeds,  Christians  have  been  ready  to 
make  money  out  of  the  heathenism  they  agree  to 
pronounce  fatal  to  the  soul.  "  Little  brass  images 
of  Krishna  before  which  Hindu  women  bow  come 
from  Birmingham."2  The  East  India  Company  took 
tribute  from  the  festivals  of  Jagannath.  Add  to  the 
pronounced  enmity  between  Catholics  and  Protestants 
the  mutual  animosities  of  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians, 
Baptists,  Methodists,  and  the  bitter  strife  waged  by 
the  sects  on  the  soil  of  India  and  Ceylon,  and  the 
expectations  of  the  Christian  Church  will  appear  pre- 
posterous indeed.3 

Mr.  Wheeler  says  that  the  influence  of  the  epics 
„  alone  on  the  masses  is  infinitely  greater  than 

Deep  roots  •'     ° 

of  native     that  of  the  Bible  on  modern  Europe.     They 
are  represented  at  village  festivals  ;  their  sto- 


1  Bevon,  Thirty  Years  in  India,  II.  290 ;  Tennent's  Ceylon,  I.  545. 

2  Carleton's  New  Way  round  the  World,  p.  165. 

3  See  Tennent's  Christianity  in  Ceylon. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  563 

ries  are  chanted  aloud  at  almost  every  social  gath- 
ering, and  indeed  form  the  topic  of  conversation 
amongst  Hindus  generally.  "They  are  all  that  the 
library,  the  newspaper,  and  the  Bible  are  to  the  Euro- 
pean ;  whilst  the  books  themselves  are  regarded  with 
a  superstitious  reverence  which  far  exceeds  that  which 
has  been  accorded  to  any  other  revelation,  real  or  sup- 
posed. [  ?]  It  is  the  common  belief  that  to  peruse  or 
merely  to  listen  to  the  perusal  of  the  Mahabharata  or 
the  Ramayana  will  ensure  prosperity  in  this  world 
and  eternal  happiness  hereafter.  At  the  same  time 
they  are  cherished  by  the  Hindus  as  national  prop- 
erty, and  as  containing  the  records  of  the  deeds  of 
their  forefathers  in  the  days  when  the  gods  held  fre- 
quent communion  with  the  children  of  men."1 

In  truth,  though  there  has  been  scarcely  an  age  in 
Hindu  history  which  has  not  been  marked  by  reli- 
gious ferment  and  change,  no  revolution  of  this  kind 
has  ever  made  a  deep  or  lasting  impression  on  the 
Hindu  mind  which  has  not  been  of  native  origin.  So 
vigorous  is  the  natural  growth  that  it  refuses  to  be 
grafted.  According  to  the  statements  in  Anderson's 
recent  work  on  Foreign  Missions,  the  thirty  societies 
interested  in  the  conversion  of  India,  with  their  five 
hundred  and  eighty  missionaries  and  four  hundred 
stations,  have,  after  this  long  period  of  British  sway 
over  these  vast  multitudes,  resulted  in  about  fifty 
thousand  communicants,  and  two  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  "nominal  Christians,"  with  one  hundred  thou- 
sand children  in  the  mission  schools.2  And  this  in  a 
population  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  !  Perhaps 
even  these  figures  are  too  large.  Mr.  Ward  (India 
and  Hindus)   estimated  in  185 1  "that  the  whole  num- 

1  Hist,  of  Imiia,  I.  4.  2  Also  Sir  J.  Bowring's  Journal,  I.  352,  378. 


564  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

ber  of  converts,  exclusive  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
cannot  exceed  ten  thousand."  We  can  hardly  wonder 
that  the  Calcutta  "  Christian  Observer,"  describing  a 
conference  of  missionaries,  held  in  that  city  in  1855, 
should  admit  that  "an  air  of  sombreness  overspread  the 
whole,  and  that  the  lesson  it  emphatically  conveyed 
was  that  of  showing  how  little  we  could  do."  1 

After  this  review  of  Hindu  philosophy  and  faith,  we 
cannot  wonder  that  at  the  present  time,  as  ages 

Present  reli-  . 

gious reform  ago  in  the  great  Buddhist  reformation,  the  re- 
in India.  iigious  genius  of  this  race  asserts  its  capacity 
for  progress.  The  influence  of  Western  missions  in 
setting  aside  Hindu  for  Christian  forms  of  religious 
association  and  doctrine  has  been  infinitesimal ;  but 
the  all-sufficient  germs  of  pure  theism  contained  in  the 
national  mind,  and  its  normal  activity,  from  earliest 
times,  are  now  bearing  fresh  fruit,  in  efforts  to  over- 
throw the  degenerate  polytheism  of  the  modern  Hindus 
and  the  miserable  social  institutions  that  accompany  it. 
It  is  on  these  purely  Hindu  associations  that  many 
sects  have  recently  arisen  in  India,  which  denounce 
the  popular  divinities  and  the  social  inequality  and 
barbarism  now  prevalent ;  "  substituting  a  moral  for  a 
ceremonial  code,  and  addressing  their  prayers  to  the 
only  God."a 

It  was  the  ancient  faith  of  the  Vedas  and  the  Upan- 
Rammohun  ishads  that  Rammohun  Roy  sought  to  restore, 
R°y-  when  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century 

he  attempted  to  purify  the  religious  life  of  his  people. 
He  translated  the  substance  of  this  grand  theism  of 
his  fathers  from  its  original  Sanskrit  into  the  languages 
of  the  masses  ;  unfolding  a  philosophy  and  piety  which 

1  Missionary  Intellig.,  VIII.  2S8. 

2  Wilson,  Essays  on  tlie  Religion  of  the  Hindus,  II    76. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  565 

amply  justified  him  in  declaring  that  "  the  superstitious 
practices  which  deform  the  Hindu  religion  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  pure  spirit  of  its  dictates."1     "Though 
Vedas,  Puranas,   and  Tantras,  frequently   assert  the 
existence  of  a  plurality  of  gods  and  goddesses,  and 
prescribe  modes  of  their  worship  for  men  of  insufficient 
understanding,  yet  they  also  have  declared  in  a  hun- 
dred other  places  that  these  passages  are  to  be  taken 
in  a  figurative  sense."2     In  his  subsequent  controversy 
with  Dr.  Marshman,  who  depreciated  his  faith,  upon 
the  ground  that  he  did  not  accept  Christianity  in  its 
trinitarian  form,  he  manfully  maintains  not  only  the 
substantial  truth  and  purity  of  his  Hindu  theism,  but 
even  for  the  low  popular  conceptions  of  it  equal  rea- 
sonableness with  those  affirmed  in  the  Christian  trinity. 
If  Christians  affirm  God  to  be  One,  though  in  three 
persons,   "they  ought   in  conscience  to  refrain  from 
accusing  Hindus  of  Polytheism  ;  for  every  Hindu,  we 
daily  observe,  confesses  the  unity  of  the  Godhead," 
even  while  making  it  consist  of  "  millions  of  substances 
assuming  offices  "  according  to  the  various  forms  of 
"Divine  Providence."3     It  should  be  noted  that  Ram- 
mohun  Roy,  while  devoutly  admiring  the  "Precepts  of 
Jesus,"  which  he  translated  into   his  native  tongue, 
did  not  admit  them  to  be  in  any  wise  inconsistent  with 
the  spiritual  faith  which  he  drew  from    native    foun- 
tains :  and  that  he  never  "  broke  with  Hinduism  nor 
adopted  Christianity  by  any  outward  act  or  rite,  even 
to  the  directions  given  for  his  burial ; " 4  and  this  while 
in  sympathy  with  the  English  Unitarians  in  their  devo- 
tion to  the  person  and  teachings  of  Jesus.     And,  even 

1  Pref.  to  Tlie  I'edant,  or  Resohition  of  the  Veds.  -  Ibid.,  p.  86. 

3  Appeals  in  Defence  of  "  Precepts  of  Jesus"  p.  172. 

4  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  Hours  of  Work  and  Play,  p.  69. 


566  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

while  carefully  avoiding  any  thing  like  denial  of  the 
New  Testament  miracles,  he  was  equally  careful  to  in- 
sist on  the  impossibility  of  using  them  as  evidences 
of  Christianity,  to  the  mind  of  a  people  who  had  rec- 
ords of  much  more  wonderful  miracles,  handed  down, 
upon  what  they  regarded  as  unquestionable  authority, 
from  their  own  traditional  saints.1 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  personal  isolation 
subsequent  of  Rammohun  Roy  in  his  own  country,  and 
reformers.  t]ie  hostility  aroused  by  his  zeal  for  religious 
and  social  reform,  drove  him  into  closer  relations  with 
Christianity  as  a  specific  faith  than  his  spiritual  needs 
required.  The  numerous  religious  reformers,  who 
have  sprung  up  in  the  same  line  of  thought  since 
his  time  in  India,  have  not  followed  his  lead  in  this 
respect ;  having  found  ample  grounds  for  their  move- 
ment in  the  national  mind  and  its  traditional  instincts, 
while  advancing  beyond  its  bibliolatry  and  tradition- 
alism into  the  domains  of  free,  universal  religion. 
Thus  the  Raja  Radhakanta  Deva  Bahadur  —  whose 
moral  attainment  was  as  remarkable  as  his  intellectual, 
the  earliest  native  helper  of  the  education  of  woman, 
and  the  first  to  provide  school  books  for  the  people, 
of  whom  it  was  said  that  he  not  only  never  made  an 
enemy,  but  earned  the  love  and  admiration  of  all  — 
remained  a  Hindu  in  his  religious  faith.2 

Most  writers  and  observers  have  recognized  a 
The  theistic  strong  disposition  in  the  modern  Hindus  to  in- 
movement.  dependent  religious  criticism,  to  rationalistic 
investigation  and  a  free  acceptance  of  the  principles 
of  natural  religion.     They  have  described  it  in  various 

:  Appeals,  &c  ,  p.  226.  Rev.  J.  Scott  Porter,  in  his  funeral  discourse,  affirms  that  Ram- 
mohun Roy,  before  his  death,  expressed  his  entire  faith  in  the  New  Testament  miracles. 
Last  Days  of  Ram-  Roy  in  England,  p.  226. 

2  See  Proceedings  of  R.  A.  S  of  Bengal  for  May,  1S67. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  567 

ways,  each  from  his  own  point  of  view.  Thus  Dr. 
Allen  tells  us,  in  his  valuable  work  on  India,  that 
there  are  many,  deists  among  the  educated  Hindus, 
many  who  have  no  faith  in  the  Sastras ;  that  their 
libraries  are  furnished  with  English  deistical  works  ; 
that  they  discuss  Christianity  and  treat  Christian  doc- 
trines with  levity ;  that  they  control  the  native  press, 
and  propose  an  eclectic  system  of  faith  from  all  re- 
ligions, adapted  to  the  present  state  of  knowledge.1 
According  to  Dr.  Anderson's  work  on  Eastern  Mis- 
sions, "  the  Hindus  have  discovered  what  it  is  to  be 
intellectually  free ;  and,  confounding  distinctions  of 
right  and  wrong,  antagonize  the  truth  of  God  [i.e., 
the  dogmatic  theology  of  the  missionaries].  There 
is  cause  for  anxiety  lest  educated  Hindus,  ceasing  to 
be  idolaters,  become  stereotyped  in  skepticism."2  Edi- 
torial tourists  notice  that  "  the  educated  Hindu  usually 
throws  over  idols,  and  becomes  free-thinker;  that  he 
does  not  adopt  Christianity,  which  would  lead  to 
ostracism,  but  rationalism  rather;  since  by  rejecting 
myths  and  superstitions  he  does  not  lose  social  posi- 
tion." 3  These  subtle  brains  slip  easily  out  of  all  nets 
of  conversion.  The  earliest  result  of  the  Anglo- 
Indian  college  of  Calcutta,  an  institution  for  the  in- 
struction of  the  Hindus  in  English  branches  of  study, 
was  the  importation  and  rapid  sale  of  a  thousand 
copies  of  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason,"  whose  market 
value  quintupled  on  the  hands  of  the  sellers.4  Miss 
Carpenter  reports  in  general  terms  that  "  educated 
Hindus  acknowledge  One  God  and  Heavenly  Father," 
and  that  they  always  responded  to  her  "  appeal 
to   Him."      "The  Prathana  Samaj"   [pure  theism], 

1  Allen's  India,  pp.  581-584.  2  Anderson,  pp.  237,  238. 

3  Carleton's  Round  the  World,  p.  209.    *  Christian  Missionary  Intelligencer,  IX.  9S 


568  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

says  a  Bombay  journal,   "  is  destined   to  be  the  re- 
ligion of  the  whole  world."1 

We  must  here  take  into  view  the  inevitable  result  of 
Fusion  of  tnat  intermixture  of  races  and  beliefs  of  which 
religions,  modern  India  has  been  the  theatre.  Islam  has 
doubtless  done  much  to  concentrate  religious  feeling, 
and  give  it  definiteness  of  moral  and  democratic 
purpose.  The  full  religious  toleration  established  by 
the  Mogul  emperor,  Akbar,  opened  India  in  the  six- 
teenth century  to  the  largest  freedom  of  speculation  and 
faith.  Akbar  was  a  believer  by  conviction  in  the 
rights  of  mind  and  the  sympathies  of  religions ;  and 
no  nobler  words  than  his,  to  this  effect,  have  been 
recorded  by  history.  Under  his  government  that 
legacy  of  thirty  centuries,  the  old  Aryan  schism, 
ceased ;  and  Persians  and  Indians  were  reunited  in 
a  common  worship.  He  was  the  great  peacemaker, 
the  "  guardian  of  mankind."  On  account  of  the  free 
discussion  of  beliefs  by  the  learned  men  of  all  relig- 
ions whom  he  brought  together  to  speak  before  the 
people,  the  custom  of  publicly  reading  comments  on 
the  Koran  was  laid  aside,  and  the  sciences  beca*me 
current  in  its  place.2  It  was  said  of  him  that  "  he 
mingled  the  best  and  purest  part  of  every  religion  for 
his  own  faith."  His  preference  was  for  the  Zoroastrian 
system ;  but  we  see  in  him  quite  as  strong  evidence 
of  the  capabilities  of  Oriental  Islam  for  religious 
hospitality  and  fusion.  Of  this  tendency  the  Dabis- 
tan,  composed  in  the  next  century  after  Akbar,  is  a 
wonderful  monument ;  and  its  charming  review  of  all 
the  great  religions  of  the  time  is  conceived  in  the 
broadest  and  most  genial  spirit.     Its  author,  Mohsan 

1  Six  Monttis  in  India,  II.  70,  71.  -  Dabistan,  ch.  x. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  569 

Fane,  declares  truly  that  he  writes  to  give  the  "  out- 
ward and  inward  meaning  of  all  beliefs,  free  of  all 
party  spirit,  without  envy,  hate,  or  scorn." 

"  The  varieties  of  the  rules  of  prophets  proceed  only  from  the 
diversity  of  names.  The  time  of  a  prophet  is  a  universal  one, 
having  neither  before  nor  after,  neither  morn  nor  eve." ' 

The  fusion  of  Semitic  monotheism  with  Aryan 
dualism  and  pantheism  in  the  East  has  developed  a 
degree  of  religious  universality  yet  to  be  appreciated. 
The  Puranas,  especially  the  Vishnu  and  the  Bhaga- 
vata,  have  in  many  respects  spiritualized  the  popular 
creeds  and  mythologies  of  India,  and  absorbed  them 
into  vast  mystical  unities  with  boundless  scope  of 
affinity,  in  accordance  with  the  genius  of  the  race. 
This  wealth  of  material  for  a  native  breadth  of  relig- 
ious sympathy  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  later 
"  Vaishnava "  sects,  which  are  widely  extended  in 
Central  and  Northern  India,  and  of  which  a  fuller 
account  will  be  given  in  another  section  of  this  work. 
Those  especially  of  Ramanand,  Kabir,  Dadu,  have 
been  described  by  Professor  Wilson  in  his  very  interest- 
ing essay  on  the  Religious  Sects  of  the  Hindus.  As 
might  be  expected  from  their  origin  in  the  traditions 
of  the  old  worship  of  Vishnu,  these  schools  for  the 
most  part  teach  universal  toleration,  and  have  sought 
to  unite  the  different  race-elements  in  Hindustan  in 
religious  sympathy.  This  was  eminently  the  aim  of 
Nanak  also,  the  founder  of  the  Sikh  religion,  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  whose  peaceful  and  humane  philos- 
ophy combined  an  almost  Vedantic  mysticism  with 
practical  benevolence  and  brotherhood.  It  was  only 
under  the  influence  of  later  gurus,  or  teachers,  and  of 

1  Dabistau,  ch.  xii. 


570  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Mohammedan  persecution,  that  the  Sikhs  were  trans- 
formed into  a  nation  of  soldiers,  with  aspirations  for 
material  conquests.     Nanak  said  :  — 

"  He  alone  is  a  true  Hindu  whose  heart  is  just,  and  he  only  a 
good  Mohammedan  whose  life  is  pure."  —  "  Be  true,  and  thou  shalt 
be  free.     Truth  belongs  to  thee,  and  thy  success  to  the  Creator."  ' 

The  Sikh  Bible  says  :  — 

"  God  will  not  ask  man  of  what  race  he  is.  He  will  ask  what 
he  has  done." 

"  Heed  not  the  command  of  the  impure  man,  though  among  the 
nobles ;  but  of  one  who  is  pure  among  the  most  despised  will 
Nanak  become  the  footstool." 

"  Put  on  the  armor  that  harms  no  one.  Let  thy  coat  of  mail  be 
reason,  and  convert  thy  enemies  to  friends.  All  founders  of  sects 
are  mortal.  God  alone  endures  for  ever.  Men  may  read  Vedas 
and  Korans,  but  only  in  Him  is  salvation." 

It  was  said  that,  "  when  men  listened  to  Nanak,  they 
forgot  that  mankind  had  any  religion  but  one."  So 
when  Kabir  died,  the  Dabistan  tells  us,  both  Hindus 
and  Mohammedans  assembled,  the  ones  to  bury,  the 
others  to  burn  his  body,  each  supposing  him  to  have 
been  of  their  own  faith.  At  last  a  fakir  stepped  into 
the  midst  and  said,  "  Kabir  was  a  holy  man,  inde- 
pendent of  both  religions ;  but,  having  during  his  life 
satisfied  you,  he  must  also,  after  death,  meet  your 
approval,"  —  whence  the  proverb  :  — 

"  Live  so  as  to  be  claimed  after  death  to  be  burned  by  the  Hindus, 
and  to  be  buried  by  the  Moslem." 

The  followers  of  Baba-lal,  who  unite  elements  of 
the  Vedanta  with  the  mystical  devotion  of  the  Sufis, 
adoring  One  God  without  confinement  to  forms  of 
worship,  say,  "  God  is  the  creed  of  those  who  love 

1  Dabistan,  ch.  ii. 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  57 1 

Him  ;  and  to  do  good  is  best,  for  the  followers  of 
every  faith."  1 

The  fine  speculative  quality  of  the  Hindu  brain  is 
in  natural  affinity  with  the  freedom  of  inquiry  Ethnic 
which  animates  the  present  age.     This  native  qualities- 
genius,  quickened  by  opportunities  of  dealing  with  the 
largest  philosophy  and  boldest  criticism  of  modern  time, 
and  finding  abundant  analogies  for  these  in  the  litera- 
ture already  familiar  to  it,  is  rapidly  emancipating  Hin- 
duism from  the  degradation  and  lethargy  of  the  past. 
Frances  Power  Cobbe,  a  most  competent  authority  on 
the  subject,  has  called  attention  to  the  facts,  that  "  the 
common  tendency  of  conquered  nations  to  adopt  the 
religion  of  the  victorious  race  exists  very  slightly,  if 
at  all,  among  the  educated  Hindus ; "  and  that,  in  the 
words  of  the  "  Contemporary  Review,"  there  is  even 
"  a  growing  silent  alienation  of  the  younger  generation 
of  Englishmen  in  India  from  Christian  worship  and 
communion  ;  "  and  this,  too,  among  those  "whose  lives 
are  pure,  who  exhibit  least  of  the  worldly  self-seeking 
spirit,  who  are  among  the  most  thoughtful  and  culti- 
vated." 2     Whatever  feelings  these  facts  may  excite  in 
the  missionary,  or  distinctively  Christian  mind,  nothing 
could  afford  more  impressive  proof  of  the  power  of 
native  Hindu  genius,  speculative  and  religious,  to  re- 
generate the  national  character    by    its    own    natural 
methods,  without  adopting  an  alien  form  of  religious 
faith.     It  is  finding  its  own  way  out  of  special  exclu- 
sive confessions  into  the  open  day  of  Universal  Relig- 
ion.    It  has  been  said  that  the  Gayatri,  the  morning 
and  evening  prayer  of   all   Brahmans,   "  might  with 
slight  alteration  be  converted  into  a  Christian  prayer." 
It  needs  no  alteration  whatever  to  become  a  part  of 

1  Wilson,  I.  352.  2  Hours  of  Work  and  Play,  p.  64. 


572  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

the  free  Bible  of  Humanity.  "  Let  us  meditate  on  the 
excellent  Light  in  the  divine  Sun,  and  may  his  beams 
illumine  our  minds." 

There  is  unmistakable  evidence  of  all  this  in  the 
The  Brah-  growth  of  the  Brakma-Samaj,  or  "  Church  of 
ma-samaj.  the  One  God ; "  certainly  a  movement,  which 
for  noble  and  generous  purpose,  for  profound  earnest- 
ness of  religious  faith,  and  for  significance  in  the 
present  epoch  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  transition,  is 
unsurpassed,  and  which  deserves  the  name  of  inspira- 
tion as  truly  as  any  thing  in  history.  By  this  statement 
I  do  not  mean  to  exaggerate  any  of  its  actual  merits, 
any  more  than  I  would  affirm  the  absence  of  defects 
which  a  distance  of  half  the  circumference  of  the  earth 
may  hide  from  us.  Its  essential  meaning  and  purpose 
demand  no  less  a  tribute  than  I  have  accorded  it. 
Here  is  a  perfected  theistic  faith,  growing  up  on  purely 
Hindu  grounds,  and  rapidly  expanding  throughout 
India ;  inheriting  the  grandest  affirmations  of  the 
Vedic  Scriptures,  yet  nowise  bound  thereby  ;  blend- 
ing the  old  mystic  fervor  with  the  purest  practical 
morality ;  aiming  at  the  entire  religious  and  social 
regeneration  of  India,  at  the  abolition  of  caste  and 
polytheism,  at  the  elevation  of  woman,  through  the 
reform  of  marriage  customs  and  domestic  servitudes, 
and  the  largest  opportunity  of  culture  and  occupation. 
Its  spirit  is  thoroughly  democratic,  and  it  demands  of 
the  Brahman  that  he  throw  away  at  once  the  sacred 
thread  that  designates  the  twice-born  man  of  the  elect 
caste,  and  consecrate  himself  to  the  service  "  not  of 
the  wise  and  gifted,  whose  lives  have  already  been  a 
boon,  but  to  the  poor,  the  stupid,  and  the  sinful." 
Originating  in  the  pious  scholarship  and  benevolence 
of  Rammohun  Roy,  in  his  effort  to  return  to  the  sub- 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  573 

stance  of  the  old  Vedic  faith,  and  to  engraft  thereon 
the  universal  ethics  of  love  and  justice,  it  has  placed 
itself  on  a  broader  basis  than  even  he  expected ;  re- 
cognizing that  the  aim  should  be  not  to  become 
merged  in  Christianity  as  a  specific  faith,  nor  in  the 
centralization  of  religious  union  in  a  discipleship  of 
Jesus ;  but,  in  the  words  of  its  present  enlightened 
and  enthusiastic  leader,  in  his  letter  to  the  "  Free 
Religious  Association "  of  American  liberals,  to 
"  propagate  the  universal  and  absolute  religion,  whose 
cardinal  doctrines  are  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  and  which  accepts  the  truths  of 
all  scriptures  and  honors  the  prophets  of  all  nations ; " 
and  by  "  promoting  the  intellectual,  moral,  and  social 
reformation  of  individuals  and  nations,  to  make  theism 
the  religion  of  life."1 

The  practical  earnestness  and  profound  conviction 
of  this  remarkable  man  has  done  much  to  Keshub 
bring  to  clear  and  strong  purpose  the  vague  Se™n  e 
yearnings  of  the  intelligent  classes  in  India,  and 
direct  the  ferment  of  reform  into  productive  channels. 
Unwearied  in  his  missionary  and  literary  efforts, 
founding  churches  all  over  India,  and  inspiring  his 
co-laborers  by  the  pulpit  and  the  pen  for  ten  years 
past,  he  has  found  the  fields  ripe  for  his  harvests,  and 
with  prophetic  faith  recognizes  the  tendency  of  the 
age  in  India  to  be,  as  elsewhere  in  the  civilized 
world,  towards  free  and  natural  theism.  Upwards  of 
sixty  of  these  churches  already  exist  in  the  various 
provinces  of  India ;  earnest  missionaries,  supported 
by  voluntary  contributions,  are  preaching  these  pure 
ethics  and  spiritual  intuitions  to  the  masses ;  several 
periodicals  are  maintained  and  widely  circulated ;  and, 

1  See  Proceedings  of  Free  Relig.  Assoc,  for  1868  (Boston,  Adams  &  Co.). 


574  RELIGIOUS    PHILOSOPHY. 

if  we  may  accept  the  testimony  of  one  who  has  earned 
the  highest  credence  on  subjects  of  this  nature,  "  all  the 
educated  youth  of  India  (save  a  certain  number  wholly 
skeptical  in  their  tendencies)  are  in  sentiment  favor- 
able to  Brahmoism,  and  gradually  fall  into  its  ranks 
as  the  indulgence  or  death  of  their  fathers  may  permit 
them  to  abandon  Hindu  rites."1  The  "skepticism" 
here  referred  to  is,  in  most  cases,  the  free  rationalism 
of  positive  science,  or  that  large  personal  liberty  that 
finds  its  sphere  outside  all  church  organizations. 

Thus  approaches  the  final  justification  for  whatsoever 
promise  of  has  been  of  best  promise  in  Eastern  wisdom 
India.  anc[  faith  ;  a  new  dawn  after  centuries  of  com- 
parative death  and  night.  It  is  nothing  less  than  such 
a  grand  form  of  religion  as  this,  very  far  in  advance 
of  the  prevailing  creeds  of  Christendom,  that  now 
reaches  its  spiritual  hands  across  the  seas  of  race  and 
mind  —  just  as  the  electric  wire  is  encircling  the  mate- 
rial globe,  just  as  all  the  relations  of  trade  and  science 
and  politics  are  becoming  oecumenical  —  to  our  own 
natural  religion  in  the  West,  now  escaping  the  Chris- 
tian and  the  Judaic  dogma,  as  itself  has  the  Brahman- 
ical,  upon  the  ground  of  those  inherent,  inalienable, 
and  immutable  relations  that  unite  Man  with  God.  It 
is  through  such  elements  as  these  that  the  future  faith 
of  the  world  is  germinating  in  the  mysterious  unities 
of  progress ;  the  new  spiritual  climate  of  science  and 
freedom  ;  the  communion  of  races  and  beliefs. 

I  gladly  add  the  ardent  words  in  which  Chunder 
Sen  announces  this  common  prophecy  of  the  East  and 
the  West :  — 


1  F.  P.  Cobbe,  Hours  of  Work  and  Play,  p.  78.  Similar  testimony  was  given  by  the 
students  of  the  Presbyterian  Colleges  in  Calcutta,  in  reply  to  questions  put  them  in  turn 
by  the  correspondent  of  the  London  Times- 


RELIGIOUS    UNIVERSALITY.  575 

"The  future  religion  of  the  world  which  I  have  described  will  be 
the  common  religion  of  all  nations,  but  in  each  nation  it  will  have  an 
indigenous  growth  and  assume  a  distinctive  and  peculiar  character. 
No  country  will  borrow  or  mechanically  imitate  the  religion  of 
another  country  ;  but  from  the  depths  of  the  life  of  each  nation  its 
future  church  will  grow  up.  In  common  with  all  other  nations  and 
communities,  we  shall  embrace  the  theistic  worship,  creed,  and 
gospel  of  the  future  church.  But  we  shall  do  this  on  a  strictly 
national  and  Indian  style.  One  religion  shall  be  acknowledged  by 
all  men ;  one  God  shall  be  worshipped  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  world  ;  the  same  spirit  of  faith  and  love  shall  per- 
vade all  hearts  ;  all  nations  shall  dwell  together  in  the  Father's 
house  ;  yet  each  shall  have  its  own  peculiar  and  free  mode  of  action. 
There  shall,  in  short,  be  unity  of  spirit,  but  diversity  of  forms  ;  one 
body,  but  different  limbs  ;  one  vast  community  with  members  la- 
boring in  different  ways,  and  according  to  their  respective  resources 
and  peculiar  tastes,  to  advance  their  common  cause,  '  the  Father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  Man.'  " 


III. 

BUDDHISM. 


D^OO- 


I. 

SPECULATIVE     PRINCIPLES. 


37 


SPECULATIVE     PRINCIPLES. 


TN  defining  the  Hindu  mind  as  the  Brain  of  the  East, 
-*-  I  have  not  intended  to  deny  that  it  possesses  Balance  of 
muscular  and  nervous  elements  also.  These  nature- 
are  relatively  in  defect,  while  the  cerebral  is  in  excess. 
But  nature  always  seeks  true  balance.  This  brain  is 
of  Aryan  substance ;  and  we  have  already  found  its 
quality  suggestive  of  most  forms  of  Indo-European 
development,  many-sided  as  that  is.  We  have  seen 
that  the  practical  energy  which  belongs  to  this  family 
of  nations  under  cooler  skies  is  hinted  by  many  vigor- 
ous reactions  both  in  earlier  and  later  times  upon  the 
mystical  quietism  of  Indian  life.  Of  this  nature  were 
the  belief  in  active  incarnation  from  age  to  age,  as 
often  as  virtue  needed  reinstatement  by  discipline, 
strength,  or  love  ;  the  interest  felt  by  Brahman  hermits 
in  living  creatures ;  the  sympathetic  realism  of  poets 
in  describing'  the  more  subtle  phenomena  of  nature. 
Such  aptitudes  are  the  more  striking,  in  view  of 
their  association  with  philosophies  which  turn  the  visi- 
ble world  into  dream.  We  may  add  to  these  the  na- 
tional taste  for  dramatic  and  gnomic  literature,  the 
exuberance  of  its  flow  into  proverbs,  fables,  and 
plays,  as/well  as  the  acknowledged  skill  of  the  modern 


580  BUDDHISM. 

Hindus  in  many  difficult  and  delicate  handicrafts,  and 
the  business  tact  and  enterprise  conceded  to  the  mer- 
chants of  Calcutta  and  Bombay. 

The  earliest   Aryans   were,   as  we   have   seen,   an 
. ,     ,  independent,  energetic  race.     The  later  hero 

Martial  and  r  ° 

democratic  of  the  epic  wars  resembles  those  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian sagas  and  the  Homeric  poems,  in 
his  bold  bearing  towards  the  gods.  He  demands  pro- 
tection as  a  right :  he  does  not  hesitate  to  defy  fate, 
and  to  unsheathe  his  weapons  against  the  lightnings  of 
angry  deities.  Still  later  the  belief  prevailed  that  not 
only  Brahman  devotees,  but  Kshattriya  chiefs,  could 
awaken  the  jealousy  of  these  superhuman  masters, 
and  even  force  them  from  their  seats.  The  Mahab- 
harata  declares  that  neither  penitence  nor  wisdom  can 
bestow  such  bliss  as  they  attain  who  die  on  the  field 
of  battle.  "  Remember,"  says  the  mother  of  the  Panda- 
vas  to  her  sons,  "that  you  are  Kshattriyas,  —  not  born 
to  till  the  ground,  nor  trade,  nor  beg  for  bread,  but  to 
use  the  sword,  to  slay  or  be  slain ;  and  that  it  is  a 
thousand  times  better  to  be  slain  with  honor  than  to 
live  in  disgrace.  Prove  to  the  world  that  Kunti  is  the 
mother  of  a  noble  race."  The  modern  Sikh  or  Raj- 
put, who  worships  his  sword  and  his  shield,  is  a  true 
representative  of  the  epic  Pandu  and  Kuru  chiefs. 
The  heroic  deeds  of  Krishna  and  Rama  were  sung  by 
rhapsodists  at  the  courts  of  the  petty  Indian  kings  long 
before  some  Hindu  Pisistratus  gathered  and  arranged 
their  effusions,  to  be  stamped  with  the  symbolical 
names  of  Valmiki  and  Vyasa.1  In  fact  the  whole 
history  of  the  martial  element  in  India,  ancient  and 
modern,  strikingly  resembles  the  growth  of  the  same 
element  in  Greece  and  Northern  Europe. 

1  Lassen,  Ind.  Alt..,  I.  pp.  4S2,  839.  , 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  581 

We  have  seen,  further,  that  the  ancient  system  of 
independent  village  communities,  which  has  held  its 
ground  in  India  down  to  the  present  time,  was  a  sys- 
tem replete  with  vigorous  germs  of  self-government. 
We  have  observed  that  the  constitution  and  usages  of 
the  caste  system  bear  resemblance  in  certain  respects 
to  those  of  the  ancient  Germanic  tribes,  especially  in 
the  independence  of  each  caste  in  matters  which  con- 
cern its  own  organization  and  internal  affairs  ; *  and  we 
have  traced  the  democratic  forces  which  have  disin- 
tegrated the  system  itself. 

It  is  a  long  way  from  Indra,  the  lightning-God 
of  the  old  Veda,  to  Brahma,  the  contemplative  Spirit 
adored  in  the  Upanishads  and  the  Bhagavadgita.  But, 
at  every  step  in  the  transition,  the  practical  and  ener- 
getic side  of  the  Aryan  character,  of  which  Indra  was 
the  typical  deity,  maintained  its  ground,  in  some  form 
of  reaction  on  the  tendency  to  inertness  and  dream. 

We  pass  to  the  most  important  of  all  these  reactions 
in  belief  and  institution,  to  that  most  impressive  move- 
ment in  all  Asiatic  history,  where  the  practical  philan- 
thropy of  the  West  may  find  itself  anticipated  within 
the  most  abstract  philosophy  of  the  East,  —  the  Budd- 
hist Reformation. 

Every  positive  religion  begins  in  a  natural  .  aspi- 
ration, which  is  also  a  true  inspiration.  It  is  The  process 
embodied  in  the  Prophet,  who  is  wont  to  be  a  of  relisions- 
poet,  and  lover  of  men.  Gradually  it  gathers  about 
it  the  machinery  of  organization.  The  common  un- 
derstanding among  its  believers  becomes  a  principle 
of  mutual  supervision  to  protect  its  interests  and  assure 
its  triumph.  The  common  faith  ceases  to  be  one  with 
all  life  and  law,  the  free  growth  of  the  person,  and  is 

1  See  Buyers's  Recoil,  of  Nortlicrn  India,  p.  457. 


582  .  BUDDHISM. 

set  off  as  a  special  commandment  from  without  and 
from  above,  to  comply  with  certain  conditions  and  ac- 
complish certain  objects.  It  is  embodied  in  a  Church 
with  holy  names,  books,  fixed  creeds,  formulas,  sym- 
bols, all  of  which  have  become  fetiches  at  last ;  also 
in  the  functionary  of  the  same,  the  Priest.  But  fresh 
aspirations  are  aroused  by  the  process  itself,  since  the 
soul  cannot  be  driven  into  permanent  dotage ;  and 
these  strike  off  from  it,  finding  their  way  upward, 
pushing  aside  its  forms,  and  even  its  name.  A  new 
meaning  will  first  be  sought  in  the  old  formulas, 
nearer,  it  is  fondly  dreamed,  to  their  original  meaning. 
But  it  is  soon  found  that  the  new  wine  is  not  for  the 
old  vessels ;  that  the  age  is  not  content  to  give  its  new 
children '  the  quaint  names  their  grandfathers  were 
called  by,  out  of  the  old  Bibles  ;  and  so  the  dead 
labels  are  thrown  aside,  as  having  served  their  pur- 
poses in  the  world.  So  there  come  to  be  many  relig- 
ions in  human  history,  though  all  go  back  to  a 
common  root  and  an  inmost  identity. 

Somehow  the  veil  of  priesthood  is  rent ;  the  divine 
right  of  special  names,  creeds,  and  persons,  is  ex- 
ploded ;  and  the  people  make  fresh  way  for  themselves, 
with  new  affirmation  of  what  is  human  and  universal. 
Theology  is  converted  into  gospel.  This  third  stage 
is  embodied  in  the  Spiritual  Reformer,  whose  inspi- 
ration is  not  less  real  because  it  is  not  exclusively  his, 
but  belongs  also  to  his  age.  He  is  reformer  of  the 
old  paths,  prophet  of  the  new.  This  is  the  historic 
law. 

Such  was  the  history  of  Judaism,  and  the  passage 
thence  into  Christianity  ;  of  Catholicism,  and  the  escape 
into  Protestantism  ;  of  each  Protestant  Church  and  the 
churches  that  came  out  of  it.     Such  is  now  the  history 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  583 

of  Christianity  itself  and  the  universal  religion  that 
supplants  its  distinctive  claims  ;  as  yet  taking  no  name, 
let  us  hope ;  and,  as  identical  with  all  true  human  life, 
surely  needing  .none.  We  are  now  to  trace  the  anal- 
ogous process  in  Brahmanism. 

That  contemplative  religion  began  in  a  profound 
sense  of  the  mystery  of  existence.  It  was  Brahman- 
absorbed  in  the  incessant  recurrence  of  growth  aspiration. 
and  decay,  the  endless  transitions  of  life  and  death, 
the  solemn  flow  of  all  things  into  the  unseen,  till  it 
was  possessed  by  a  sense  of  unreality  and  dream. 
But  this  weight  forced  up  the  opposite  pole  of  thought ; 
the  very  restlessness  guaranteed  rest ;  the  doom  of 
change  pressed  home  the  sense  of  the  eternal.  So 
sound  is  nature  in  man  :  he  sees  how  all  things  pass 
away ;  he  will  live  for  what  cannot  pass  away.  This 
the  aspiration  of  Brahmanism,  —  an  inspiration  of 
faith  in  the  everlasting. 

We  found  this  even  in  early  Vedic  hymns  which 
taught  the  mystic  unity  of  the  gods  ;  in  later  thought- 
ful musings  on  the  origin  of  the  universe,  and  its 
return  into  the  bosom  of  the  life  whence  it  came ;  in 
the  devout  poet's  philosophy  that  saw  and  felt  all 
things  and  all  beings  as  for  ever  in  God.  It  sent  the 
saints  of  Brahma  to  their  aspiring  penance  and  ascetic 
triumphs  under  those  shadowy  banyans,  whose  in- 
numerable descending  boughs  and  ascending  roots, 
interlaced  in  one  living  whole,  were  a  mystic  symbol 
of  spiritual  being  as  masked  by  the  manifold  ties  of 
life  and  bonds  of  action ;  and  it  held  them  there  in 
patient  effort  to  lose  definite  desires  and  thoughts  in 
perfect  union  with  the  one  infinite  and  eternal  life 
which  these  but  veiled.  Remote  as  its  method  was 
from  what  now  becomes  us,  it  was  an  inspiration  of 


584  BUDDHISM. 

thought  and  sacrifice  and  prayer ;  and  so  it  has  left  to 
the  ages  those  sublime  responses  that  make  amends 
for  all  extravagance  and  superstition  in  its  devotees. 
The  seers  to  whom  we  owe  the  Upanishads  were 
none  the  less  true  believers  in  their  vision,  for  the 
Brahmanical  absolutism  that  was  growing  up  around 
them. 

We  have  seen  that  large  freedom  of  discussion  and 
organiza-  speculation  prevailed  in  the  Hindu  schools  from 
tion.  very  early  times.     And  it  is  obvious  from  the 

nature  of  thought  that  this  mystical  worship  of  the  One 
and  Everlasting  could  hardly  have  embodied  itself  in 
a  sharply  organized  Church.  Yet  caste  involved  the 
distinction  of  priestly  and  lay  classes.  The  spiritual 
relations  of  men  became  vicarious.  The  dogma  grew 
definite.  The  Hymns,  preserved  in  official  memory 
as  verbally  inspired,  were  laden  with  comment  and 
ritual  that  swelled  into  new  Veda  as  sacred  as  the 
first.  The  ascetic  rule  became  more  systematic  and 
relentless  :  the  original  contempt  of  the  saint  for  the 
changing  world  grew  into  contempt  of  all  social  rela- 
tions. Caste,  not  organized  by  the  priesthood,  was 
elaborated  by  that  class,  in  its  own  interest ;  and  the 
uninitiated  classes  were  rigidly  excluded  from  reading 
or  teaching  the  Veda.  The  Brahmanical  caste  was 
debarred  by  its  limits  as  a  hereditary  body  from  any 
effort  to  enlarge  its  own  membership.  The  fewer  its 
numbers,  the  diviner  would  it  seem  ;  and  the  higher 
would  be  the  prestige  of  unity.  Like  the  priesthoods 
of  all  religions,  it  cherished  its  spiritual  light  as  too 
precious  to  be  trusted  to  the  untaught  mind ;  holding 
it  in  custody  of  a  mediatorial  authority,  by  whose 
service  its  virtue  was  to  be  made  effective  for  the 
common  salvation.      The  multitude  was  its  footstool 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  585 

on  earth,  and  its  dominion  reached  on  through  the  life 
to  come.  Brahmanism  was  not  a  system  to  recognize 
the  necessity  of  proselyting.  It  was  the  effort  of  the 
individual  to  lift  himself  out  of  illusion  into  real  life,  and 
its  only  associative  principle  was  that  of  caste.  Far 
from  having  any  idea  of  proselytism,  it  was  aristocratic 
and  unsocial ;  the  climate  suppressing  practical  energy 
in  the  thinker ;  and  the  contemplative  spirit  tending 
to  personal  isolation.  It  had  its  fraternities  and 
schools,  and  numberless  hermitages  sprinkled  the 
forests  of  India  ;  but  these  schools  were  not  founded  to 
share  the  light  of  Brahmanical  wisdom  with  other 
than  the  higher  or  "twice-born"  classes,  nor  were 
hermitages  planted  in  the  spiritual  interest  of  the 
aborigines,  except  in  so  far  as,  being  admitted  into 
the  body  politic  as  Sudras,  these  lower  races  were  to 
be  saved  by  the  meritorious  disciplines  of  its  priestly 
devotees.  Its  steady  tide  of  monasticism,  setting 
southwards  into  the  wilderness,  measured  the  force 
with  which  it  repelled  the  social  sympathies.  Chris- 
tianity, it  is  well  known,  had  a  similar  monastic  phase 
in  its  history.  There  were  elements  of  Brahmanism, 
however,  which  helped  to  counteract  or  weaken  this 
tendency  to  isolation :  some  of  these  have  already 
been  mentioned  in  our  section  on  the  Laws.  Budd- 
hism, notwithstanding  its  democratic  spirit,  used  the 
name  of  Brahman  with  respect,  as  representative  of 
purity  and  the  true  path  of  life ; *  and  defended  it 
from  discredit  at  the  hands  of  those  who  claimed 
exclusive  title  to  it.  Many  circumstances  indicate 
that  the  system  had  hardly  reached  the  stage  of  strict 
and  effective  organization,  when  it  began  to  be  checked 
by    the    definite    protest   of   Buddhism;    to   which    it 

1  Dhammzpada.     See  also  Sykes,  in  Jourrtal  Roy.  As-  Soc,  vi.  p.  406. 


586  BUDDHISM. 

yielded  so  readily  that  a  few  centuries  seem  to  have 
sufficed  to  give  the  latter  religion  the  control  of 
Northern  India. 

The  social  sympathies  cannot  be  abolished.  Under 
Reaction  to  whatever  national  or  climatic  conditions,  prac- 
universaiity.  tical  democratic  instincts  will  make  themselves 
heard.  No  race  nor  religion  has  the  monopoly  of 
forces  so  essential  to  the  justification  of  human  nature. 
To  some  vigorous  spirit  the  abstract  truths  of  contem- 
plation will  become  forces  of  his  own  active  realism  : 
they  will  become  hands  and  feet,  and  demand  to  be 
used.  Organized  into  his  moral  being,  these  medita- 
tions, these  divine  dreams,  carry  him  straightway  out 
of  his  spiritual  cell,  to  say  to  the  whole  world : 
What  is  mine  is  yours  also  :  the  great  all-reconciling 
light  that  shone  down  to  me  on  the  mountain-top,  in 
the  desert  stillness,  in  the  night  of  self-abandonment 
to  the  best,  this  was  not  for  me,  it  was  for  all  mankind. 
Then  the  spiritual  aristocracy  has  to  learn  that  the 
truths  it  was  hoarding  are  greater  than  itself;  that 
they  refuse  its  patronage  and  custody,  and  go  home 
to  the  universal  heart.  It  has  to  deal  as  it  best  can, 
even  in  these  finer  and  subtler  spheres  of  thought, 
with  democratic  reform. 

That  a  practical,  humanitarian  spirit  has  been  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  mystical  and  pantheistic  devo- 
tion has  been  already  noted  in  previous  pages  of  this 
volume.  In  Brahmanical  history,  this  justification,  so 
early  and  rapid  that  it  indicates  the  great  strength  of 
these  elements  in  the  Hindu  mind,  was  Buddhism. 
And  Comparative  Religion  hardly  affords  a  more  in- 
teresting study  than  the  process  by  which  its  health- 
ful reaction  struggled  forth  out  of  the  abyss  of  abstract 
ideas  and  ascetic  disciplines. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  587 

From  what  has  now  been  said  it  will  be  readily  in- 
ferred that  to  define  Buddhism  or  assign  a  date 

0  Buddhism  a 

for  its  origin  is  far  from  easy.  It  is  an  ele- constant  ele- 
ment, rather  than  a  special  movement ;  and m< 
perhaps  we  should  not  greatly  err  if  we  used  the 
name  to  designate  the  ever-varying  forms  of  a  prot- 
estant,  democratic,  humane  quality  in  the  Oriental 
mind,  as  natural  to  it  as  the  contemplative,  and  usually 
interwoven  therewith.  Scholars  are  agreed  in  tracing 
it,  as  a  philosophy,  back  to  Kapila  and  the  Sankhya, 
which  may  yet  prove  to  have  been  the  oldest  of  the 
great  Hindu  systems.1  Buddhist  tradition  itself  refers 
the  birth  of  Gotama  Buddha  to  Kapilavastu  (the  dwell- 
ing of  Kapila) ,  and  throws  the  old  rationalistic  phi- 
losopher back  into  a  very  remote  era.  We  have 
already  seen  that  Kapila  was,  in  all  essential  respects, 
at  variance  with  Brahmanical  exclusiveness,  with 
idolatry  of  traditions  and  texts,  if  he  did  not  abso- 
lutely refuse  all  authority  to  the  Vedas  ;  that  he  in- 
sisted on  the  validity  of  individual  being  against 
absorption  into  the  universal ;  and  that  he  had  a 
democratic  reliance  on  the  adequacy  of  the  human 
faculties  to  test  and  reveal  truth.  These  are  certainly 
germs  of  the  liberty  and  humanity  of  Buddhism,  if 
not  of  all  its  speculative  tenets.  The  birth-time  of  the 
Sankhya  has  never  yet  been  found.  We  may  reason- 
ably trace  it  back  to  primitive  qualities  in  the  Aryan 
race ;  to  the  independence  and  self-reliance  conspicu- 
ous both  in  the  Rig  Veda  hymns,  and  in  the  self- 
governing  communities  that  have  so  firmly  held  their 
own,  as  a  necessity  of  Hindu  life.  This  theory  is  con- 
firmed by  Buddhist  tradition,  which  identifies  Got- 
ama, both  as  to  descent  and  to  the  early  scenes  of  his 

1  Lassen,  Ind.  Alt.,  II.  60;  Weber,  Vorlesungen,  p.  24S. 


588  BUDDHISM. 

mission,  with  the  heroic  Kshattriya  race  of  the  Sakyas, 
and  with  the  localities  of  the  epic  wars. 

The  Vedanta,  as  well  as  the  Sankhya,  shows  germs 
of  Buddhism.  They  appear  in  its  devotion  to  abstract 
speculation,  and  in  its  recognition  that  the  soul  needed 
the  Vedas  but  for  a  time,  and  could  be  satisfied  only 
by  a  life  in  the  eternal,  where  all  distinctions  of  rank 
and  caste  would  of  course  be  lost  for  ever.  And,  more 
than  this,  the  Buddhists  are  even  charged  by  the 
Brahmans  with  plagiarizing  the  idea  of  universal 
brotherhood  from  their,  sacred  books,  and  then  turn- 
ing it  against  them.1 

The  protest  against  ecclesiastical  authority  as  em- 
Anti-ecciesi- bodied  in  the  priesthood,  reappears  at  every 
astidsm.  stage  of  Hindu  history.  The  Vedic  legend 
of  Visvamitra,  or  the  -people's  friend,  and  his  contest 
with  Vasishtha,  or  the  best,  a  superlative  which  means 
orthodox  sainthood,  has  a  development  co-extensive 
in  time  with  the  national  religious  literature.  Many 
other  vestiges  point  to  a  struggle  of  some  kind  in 
early  times  between  the  sacerdotal  and  secular  classes. 
This  schism,  of  which  some  account  has  already  been 
given,  was  probably  a  continuous  one,  commencing 
as  soon  as  the  two  classes  became  distinctly  organized 
for  political  and  religious  ends ;  and  of  this  the  war- 
fare waged  by  Buddhism  against  the  whole  caste  sys- 
tem, in  the  interest  of  the  humblest  classes  as  well  as 
of  woman,  was  but  the  extension. 

Certain  "  atheists  and  scorners  of  the  Veda,"  whom 
Manu  expels  from  the  company  of  the  righteous,  as 
addicted  to  heretical  books,  are  supposed  to  have  been 
Buddhists  by  those  who  ascribe  a  comparatively  late 
origin  to  the  code.'J    With  more  probability  they  may  be 

i  Miiller,  Sanks.  Lit-,  p.  85.  2  Wheeler,  I.  451 ;  Manu,  II.  11. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  589 

said  to  prove  that  the  rationalistic  tendency  was  active 
some  centuries  at  least  before  Buddha. 

Buddhism  has  a  twofold  aspect,  practical  and  specu- 
lative ;  and  great  injustice  has  been  done  by  Buddhism 
judging  it  from  one  or  the  other  point  of  view  twofold- 
exclusively.  In  its  earliest  definite  form,  it  was  mainly, 
a  moral  and  -philanthropic  reaction.  Yet  it  had  also 
its  spiritual  aspiration  and  its  metaphysical  basis.  The 
Chinese  Buddhists  say  of  the  two  schools  which,  upon 
the  whole,  have  represented  respectively  the  meta- 
physical and  the  moral  sides  of  this  religion,  that  "as 
the  water  is  one  though  the  vessels  are  different,  and 
as  the  illumination  is  one  though  the  lamps  be  many, 
so  with  the  schools  of  the  Great  and  Little  Vehicles." 
That  Buddhism  is  thus  consistent  with  itself  will 
clearly  appear  from  the  studies  to  which  the  reader  is 
now  invited.1  We  shall  begin  with  its  speculative 
principles,  which  cannot  well  be  separated  from  its 
original  impulse,  since  they  grew  naturally  out  of  the 
existing  soil  of  Hindu  thought. 

It  carried  the  belief  of  Brahmanism  concerning  true 
and  false  being  to  its  logical  ultimates,  reduc-  speculative 
ing  it  to  negation  by  putting  it  through  dialectic  Buddhism- 
processes  which  neither  spiritual  intuition,  nor  the 
mystic  sense  of  the  infinite  and  eternal,  is  suited  to 
bear ;  yet  it  was  not  its  purpose  to  destroy  either  of 
these.     As  it  started  from  the  same  experience  of  in- 


1  Of  the  Pitakas,  or  "  baskets  "  of  the  Law,  the  A bhidliarma,  or  metaphysical  portion, 
must  be  later  than  the  Vinaya  (ethics)  and  the  Sutras  (discourses).  Yet  the  terms  and 
phrases  in  which  it  expresses  the  substance  of  Buddhist  experience  are  also  found  in  these, 
though  in  less  developed  forms.  See  passages  in  D'Alwis's  Buddhist  Nirvana.  Some 
of  the  older  Sutras  combine,  with  their  simple  counsels  against  opposite  extremes  of  worldli- 
ness  and  self-discipline,  the  whole  philosophy  of  pain  and  release,  tracing  the  one  to  the 
five  Khandas  (mainly  mental  faculties)  and  the  twelve  nidanas,  or  special  causes,  and 
denning  the  other  as  the  perfect  wisdom  and  rest  of  nirvana.  See  Leon  Feer's  careful 
Etudes  Bonddiques  in  the  Journal  Asiatique  for  1S70. 


$gO  BUDDHISM. 

constancy  and  illusion,  so  it  sought  the  same  end,  the 
real  and  eternal,  as  spiritual  foothold  and  rest,  by  the 
same  process  of  thinking  away  those  transitory  phan- 
tasmal elements.     It  employed  logical  dialectic  as  the 
test  of  their  destructibility,  as  a  fire  that  should  leave 
nothing    unconsumed,    save    what    could    not   perish. 
Utterly  to  abolish  illusion   and  death   down  to  their 
subtlest  disguise,  it  used  similar  mental  weapons  with 
those  afterwards  employed  by  mediaeval  schoolmen  to 
establish  Christian  dogma ;  only  that  the  method  was 
destructive  of  conceptions,  as  in  the  latter  case  it  was 
defensive    and    apologetic.     A    completer    parallel    is 
found    in    the  well-known    negative   dialectics  of  the 
Eleatic   and    Megaric   schools   of  Greece.     Its   three 
steps  were  affirmation,  denial,  and  abolition  of  both. 
A  thing  may  be  proved  to  exist,  yet  it  may  also  be 
proved  to  have  no  existence  ;  finally,  it  neither  exists 
nor  does  not  exist:  hence  all  phenomena  should  be 
looked   at  from   a   state    of  pure   detachment.1      The 
perpetual  self-contradiction,  which  elusive,  intangible 
cognitions  like  time,  space,  matter,  form,  and  motion, 
can  be  put  through,  is  familiar    to  logicians.      Here 
it  but  made  part  of  an  earnest  application    of  every 
method  by  which  the  fact  of  impermanence  could  be 
shown,  to  the  whole  substance  of  experience,2  by  the 
moral  and  religious  sentiments,  intent  on  overcoming 
the  mystery  of  pain  and  death,  and  in  the  name  of 
humanity  itself. 

Whatever  definite  faith  in  the  phenomenal  world 
The  logical  remained  to  Brahmanism  after  its  own  mys- 
ordeai.  ^{ca\  renunciation,  was  swept  away  by  this 
unsparing  logical    ordeal,    which,    for  thoroughness, 

i  See  Bumouf.,  Introd.  to  Hist,  of  Buddhism,  p.  457-461. 
2  See  passages  in  Wuttke,  Gesch.  d.  Hcideuth.,  II.  536. 


SPECULATfVE   PRINCIPLES.  59I 

might  be  called  the  Calvinism  of  Brahmanical  doctrine. 
The  postulate  of  all  profound  philosophy  from  Demo- 
critus  to  Fichte,  —  that  the  highest  knowledge  is  con- 
ditioned by  a  conviction  of  ignorance,  —  it  carried  out 
more  thoroughly  than  the  system  it  sought  to  supplant. 
Brahmanism,  having  done  its  utmost  to  abolish  all 
pretence  of  reaching  knowledge  through  transient 
forms,  or  reality  in  phenomenal  existence,  had  found 
compensation  and  rest  in  its  intuition,  its  fervor,  its 
poetic  affirmativeness,  its  mystical  awe,  and  its  devout 
self-surrender  to  the  One.  Regardless  of  these  ele- 
ments, Buddhism  applied  its  rationalistic  tests  to  the 
definite  conceptions  they  still  protected,  and  confidently 
struck  out  for  an  ideal  goal,  even  beyond  that  silent 
sea  of  Brahma. 

How  did  it  deal  with  the  forms  of  belief  which  it 
found  in  the  way  of  its  purpose? 

We  must  recall  the  fact  that  Hindu  consciousness 
was  pervaded  by  a  sense  of  the  unity  of  allTheburden 
life.  Under  this  inspiration,  it  had  conceived  Md  rdease- 
the  continuity  of  personal  existence  as  transmigra- 
tion through  countless  forms  and  changes  of  being. 
It  was  an  immeasurable  pilgrimage  for  the  soul  to 
contemplate,  and  saddened  throughout  by  the  same 
doom  of  pain  and  death  which  made  the  present  life 
seem  a  burden  and  a  dream.  Gotama,  besought  by 
his  father  to  give  up  his  purpose  of  renouncing  his 
throne  and  the  world,  with  promises  that  he  should 
receive  whatever  he  desired,  answers :  "  O  king ! 
grant  me  four  things,  and  I  will  remain  with  you  :  to 
be  free  from  old  age,  from  sickness,  from  decay,  from 
death ;  and  if  you  cannot  give  me  these,  then  accord 
me  another  not  less  needful,  to  be  free  from  transmi- 
gration when  I  die."  1 

1  St.  Hilaire,  Le  Bouddha,  p.  17. 


592  BUDDHISM. 

And  here  is  his  joyful  cry  of  release  at  the  moment 
of  becoming  The  Buddha,  or  Enlightened  One  :  — 

"  Through  many  births  have  I  run, 
Seeking  the  maker  of  this  tabernacle. 
Painful  is  birth  again  and  again ; 

But  now,  maker  of  the  tabernacle,  thou  hast  been  seen. 
Thou  canst  not  build  for  me  another  house : 
Thy  rafters  are  broken,  thy  ridgepole  destroyed  ; 
I  have  reached  the  extinction  of  desire." 

The  thought  of  endless  duration,  of  immortal  des- 
tinies, brooded  over  these  contemplative  minds,  just  as 
the  idea  of  present  material  and  social  opportunity 
possesses  the  modern  world.  With  what  weary  sense 
of  bondage  must  the  imagination,  thus  bound  to  the 
one  ever-recurring  idea,  have  dwelt  on  these  innum- 
erable returns  to  birth ;  these  inevitable  and  endless 
"  bonds  of  action,"  these  consequences  of  conduct 
transmitted  from  world  to  world  and  form  to  form  ; 
of  which  death  was  again  and  again  only  a  fresh 
resurrection,  and  every  new  phase  of  existence  the 
thrall !  It  was  this  heavy  burden  of  care  and  pain  — 
this  monotone  of  thought,  pursuing  an  endless  coming 
and  going  and  coming  again,  a  bondage  to  decay  and 
death,  through  immeasurable  time  —  from  which  both 
Brahmanism  and  Buddhism  sought  escape,  and  from 
which  each  found  deliverance  in  its  own  way.  But  it 
is  plain  that  the  unity  of  all  forms  of  existence,  ad- 
mitted by  both,  allowed  of  no  escape,  but  to  trans- 
cend them  all.  Existence  itself,  in  a  certain  sense, 
must  be  overpassed.  In  other  words,  emancipation 
could  come  only  through  a  purely  ideal  conception, 
illumination,  absorption,  the  substance  whereof  must 
be,  —  to  think  away  from,  to  work  out  of,  to  disci- 
pline, purify,  exalt  one's  self  from,  existence  in   the 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  593 

sense  given  the  word  by  the  doctrine  of  transmigra- 
tion ;  that  is,  existence  in  the  sense  of  dream,  of 
bondage  to  decay,  death,  and  return;  existence  in  all 
conceivable  forms  of  transient  life,  as  being  not  really 
life,  not  inalienable  certainty,  but  obliged  to  point  for 
these  beyond  itself.  To  the  Vedantists  this  transcend- 
ent liberty  from  changing  form,  this  ideal  bliss  over 
which  transmigration  had  no  sway,  was  immortal  life 
in  Brahma.  To  the  Buddhist,  who  boldly  refused  to 
except  Brahma,  as  a  form  of  existence,  from  his  logic 
of  negation,  it  was  nirvana. 

Transmigration  was  firavritti,  a  state  of  change  : 
freedom  was  nirvrilti,  no  more  change.  The  Buddha 
represented  intellectual  essence,  "perfect  knowledge  ;" 
and  the  nirvritti  at  which  he  arrived  was  therefore 
mind  independent  of  matter,1  of  embodied  shape,  of 
the  perceptive  faculties  in  their  conceivable  relations 
with  the  world,  in  which  they  are  necessarily  condi- 
tional and  finite.  This  was  not  essentially  different  from 
the  Sankhya  idea  of  the  "  independence  of  Purusha," 
though  with  an  absoluteness  of  protest  against  the 
mutable,  which  Kapila  would  not  have  allowed.  It 
means  a  witness-soul,  which  he  also  affirms ;  but,  so 
absorbed  in  the  fulness  of  its  emancipation,  that  it 
refuses  to  be  defined  by  positive  conceptions  of  exist- 
ence, all  of  which  would  remand  it  to  dependence  on 
what  is  transient.  Hence  the  fascination  of  tracking 
these  fugitive  conceptions  through  all  phases,  in  the 
confidence  of  a  power  beyond,  to  criticise  and  dissolve 
them.  The  most  metaphysical  form  of  Buddhism 
makes  the  wisdom  of  the  saint  nearest  nirvana  to 
consist  in  " not  seizing  the  form."2 

1  Hodgson,  Trans.  R.  A.  S.,  II.  249. 

2  Prajna  Paramita-     See  Bumouf's  Introd.,  p.  470. 

35 


594  BUDDHISM. 

That  a  law  of  bondage  forces  man  into  a  gospel  of 
From  law  freedom  is  the  inspiring  fact  that  continually 
to  gospel,  appears  in  religious  history.  As  in  the  Judaism 
of  Paul,  so  here,  it  was  an  overwhelming  legalism  that 
enforced  deliverance  by  its  pressure.  It  was  the  "  bonds 
of  action,"  those  inexorable  sequences  of  penalty,  that 
made  the  burden  of  transmigration  intolerable.  To 
believe  that  the  wrong  deed  bears  only  evil  fruit,  and 
this  for  ever ;  that  its  results  pass  over  through  an  un- 
ending succession  of  lives,  —  is  absolute  slavery  and 
despair  of  finding  release  ;  unless  there  enters,  to  com- 
plete the  conception  of  spiritual  laws,  the  assurance 
that  there  is  some  divine  chemistry,  some  redeeming 
leaven,  to  which  that  inexorable  rule  of  like  from  like 
is  subordinate.  How  man  shall  thus  find  escape  from 
the  moral  burden  of  every  imperfect  action  in  his  past, 
and  in  the  sum  total  of  human  life,  which  has  gone  to 
make  his  present,  —  and  which  in  this  aspect  may  be 
called  his  ozvn  " past  lives?  —  how  he  shall  offset  the 
strict  application  of  such  moralism  to  the  endless 
detail  of  conduct,  in  works  done  wrongly  or  to  be 
done  rightly,  in  sins  of  omission  and  commission,  — 
depends  on  his  special  ethnic  constitution  and  the 
peculiarities  of  the  stage  of  civilization  at  which  he 
has  arrived.  But  that  he  does  find  such  emancipating 
force,  and  hold  it  as  one  of  the  very  deepest  and  surest 
of  forces,  one  of  the  substantial  laws  and  facts  of 
spiritual  being,  is  a  truth  of  universal  religion.  Of 
course  a  purely  speculative  ideal,  such  as  a  contem- 
plative race  must  form,  is  of  itself  inadequate  to  this 
end ;  while  the  Christian  dogma  of  salvation  by  the 
merits  of  another  person  is  not  only  inadequate,  but, 
to  human  reason  at  least,  essentially  irrational  and 
vicious.     But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  nirvana  as 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  595 

a  speculative  ideal  does  not  represent  the  whole  of 
the  Buddhist  vision  of  emancipation,  just  as  the  dogma 
of  atonement  does  not  cover  the  whole  Christian 
conception  of  "  salvation,"  even  in  the  great  body  of 
believers  who  make  it  the  central  point  of  their  creed. 
The  peculiar  form  under  which  Buddhism,  at  least 
in  its  later  forms,  conceived  the  process  of  Thenew 
transmigration,  was  an  effort  at  once  to  recog-  souL 
nize  its  moral  values,  and  to  step  forth  from  the  bond- 
age of  its  stern  legalism.  Those  fateful  fetters  of 
endless  sequence,  penal  issues  from  actions,  "  the 
wombs  of  pain;"  those  recurring  births  and  deaths, 
which  expressed  the  continuity  of  moral  law  and  life ; 
that  solemn  ring  of  each  stroke  of  conduct  upon  the 
wrhole  future,  —  it  did  not  admit  merely,  but  carried 
out  to  their  fullest  requirement.  The  Buddhist  karma 
is  the  whole  moral  effect  of  one's  (supposed)  past  lives, 
concentrated  in  his  individual  organization ;  a  presid- 
ing genius  or  destiny,  determining  the  form  personality 
shall  assume.1  Sooner  or  later  the  tree  of  conduct 
thus  transmitted  from  seed  to  seed  bears  its  own  full 
fruit.  Though,  as  Gotama  is  made  to  say  in  one  of 
the  sutras,  during  the  process  a  man  who  has  done 
good  may  be  brought  into  a  place  of  punishment  be- 
cause of  certain  evil  deeds,  and  one  who  has  done 
evil  may  be  found  in  one  of  the  heavens  by  reason  of 
certain  good  ones,  yet  sooner  or  later  both  the  good 
and  the  evil  ripen  in  his  experience.2  But,  impossible 
as  it  might  seem,  an  escape  was  effected  from  this  stern 
legalism,  and  this  interminable  bondage.  For  the 
earlier  Buddhists  there  was  a  form  of  release  in  the 
assurance  of  nirvana,  of  which  I  shall  speak  farther 

1  Hardy,  Manual  of  Buddhism,  394,  44s      Karmau  means  action  or  work. 

2  Koeppen,  Religion  d-  Budd/ta,  I.  301. 


596  BUDDHISM. 

on.  But  the  later  form  to  which  reference  is  here 
made  was  by  a  step  which  is  to  me  incomprehensible, 
except  as  what  we  may  call  a  declaration  of  independ- 
ence ;  a  bold  counterstroke  of  the  spirit  in  behalf  of 
its  invaded  and  captured  liberty ;  a  reprisal  of  spon- 
taneity upon  fate.  It  can  hardly  be  other  than  a  direct 
severing  of  the  logical  knot,  an  appeal  from  the  pro- 
cesses of  the  understanding  to  that  mystic  realm  of 
ideal  power  in  which  all  spiritual  release  is  guar- 
anteed. That  step  was  to  declare  that  the  individual 
thus  invested  by  karma,  thus  positively  constituted  by 
the  moral  order,  was  not  the  same  as  before,  but  a  new 
soul;  its  personality  being  a  transmission  indeed  of 
the  old  unpaid  account  with  the  moral  laws,  yet  in 
such  wise  as  to  be  properly  a  new  independent  force, 
and  somehow  distinct  from  the  former  product  of  the 
good  and  bad  habits  in  question,  who  is  there  only  as 
a  new  creation. 

It  is   a   strange  and   subtle  thought,  the    meaning 
whereof    must    be     thoughtfully    considered. 

Karma.  #  ,  °  J  m 

"  Transmigration,"  it  was  well  said,  "here  be- 
comes transformation,  and  metempsychosis  metamor- 
phosis." 1  But  it  cannot  mean  literally  the  release 
of  one  individual  from  the  consequences  of  conduct 
by  creation  of  another  out  of  his  cast-off  bonds  and 
dues ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  it  mean  that  all  per- 
sonal existence  perishes  at  death,  which  would  contra- 
dict the  whole  spirit  of  Buddhism  and  its  theory  of 
the  attainment  of  nirvana.  It  cannot  mean  to  abolish 
moral  responsibility  in  the  act  of  attaining  spiritual 
release,  to  contradict  the  very  idea  of  moral  order  in 


1  Koeppen,  Religion  des  Buddha,  I.  302.  A  valuable  and  comprehensive  work,  unsur- 
passed, if  not  unequalled,  in  the  literature  of  the  present  subject.  See  also  Bigandet's 
Legend  of  the  Burmese  Buddha  (1866),  pp.  21,  468. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  597 

stating  its  process.  The  fact  of  responsibility  is  not 
lost  sight  of  through  this  apparent  change  of  personal 
identity ;  and,  if  the  former  self-consciousness  is  in  a 
sense  denied  passage  to  the  new  form  of  being,  the 
moral  identity  at  least  is  carried  forward  thither,  and 
enters  its  claims  to  represent  the  substance  of  personal- 
ity itself.  Indeed  the  Buddhist  saints  are  constantly 
spoken  of  as  maintaining  personal.identity  through  all 
stages  of  their  progress  through  successive  births.1 
It  must  be  remembered,  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  mean- 
ing of  karma,  that,  as  the  whole  sense  of  individuality 
hovers  vaguely  in  the  Hindu  mind,  the  same  charac- 
ter must  be  found  in  its  sense  of  transition  from  one 
form  of  life  or  world  of  forms  to  another.  Terms  ex- 
pressive of  this  are  in  fact  used  with  great  mystical 
freedom  and  breadth  of  meaning.  The  "  new  soul  " 
involved  in  this  Buddhist  karma  can  mean  nothing 
else  than  a  new  starting-fioint,  a  reaction  of  some  sort 
on  the  inevitable  and  indispensable  bonds  of  former 
conduct ;  some  hint,  perhaps  a  real  instinct,  that  there 
is  more  in  man's  spiritual  experience  than  the  con- 
sciousness of  past  merit  or  demerit  as  his  own;  an 
effort,  in  short,  to  affirm  that  spontaneity  in  his  spirit- 
ual essence  which  he  must  not  press  the  fact  of  re- 
sponsibility so  far  as  to  ignore  ;  the  liberty  that  resides 
in  every  moment  to  cast  off  the  burden  of  the  past, 
and  begin  reconstruction  of  experience  itself. 

With  this  assertion  of  freedom,  if  I  am  right  in  in- 
terpreting it  as  such,  the  Buddhist  idea  of  kar- 

L  °  .  Moral  rela- 

ma  sought  to  combine  full  acceptance  of  the  tkmsof 
facts  of  moral  order.     It  is  the  inextinguish-  Karma" 
able  vitality  of  the  moral  seed,  passing  beyond  the 
harvests  of  a  single  lifetime,  that  is  here  insisted  on, 

1  Hardy,  Manual,  p.  398. 


598  BUDDHISM. 

as  not  negatived  by  the  fact  that  we  have  no  conscious- 
ness of  a  previous  state  of  being.  We  are  "  new 
souls,"  yet  not  the  less  are  past  lives  now  living  on  in 
ours,  and  we  in  a  sense  take  up  their  accounts  with 
moral  and  natural  laws,  where  these  left  them.  Kar- 
ma means  that  the  continuity  of  the  race,  the  endless 
succession  of  its  births,  is  really  a  form  of  the  perpetual 
productivity  of  moral  causes.  We  have  here  then  an 
instinctive  Oriental  presentiment  or  analogue  of  the 
modern  science  of  heredity ;  except  that  the  parentage 
it  deals  with  is  primarily  moral,  not  physical,  and  that 
it  pushes  the  truth  that  we  are  ignorant  as  to  the  past 
grounds  of  our  present  organization  to  the  point  of 
apparently  making  us  the  mere  consequence  of  a  series 
of  acts  unknown,  and  by  us  unknowable.  It  even 
presumes  a  creative  power  in  them  adequate  to  pro- 
duce our  consciousness  itself.  But  this  is  the  im- 
aginative form  in  which  a  deep  conviction  of  the 
omnipotence  of  moral  laws  was  expressed ;  and  we 
have  already  noted  how  decisively  the  rights  of  spon- 
taneity came  in  to  counteract  a  too  absolute  deter- 
minism. 

"  The  practical  tendency  of  the  Krishna  faith  has  its  counter- 
part in  the  Yatnika  school  of  Buddhism,  which  teaches  that  all 
obstacles  can  be  mastered.  While  the  Swabhavika  school  yields 
itself  with  resignation,  in  the  faith  that  the  Supreme  Essence  [Fate] 
governs  all,  the  Yatnika  admonishes  to  energetic  action,  since, 
though  man  cannot  withdraw  himself  from  karma,  he  can  never- 
theless influence  its  course.  The  ripened  fruit  of  conduct  must  be 
eaten  ;  but  it  depends  on  the  will  to  sow  such  seeds,  that  a  pleasant 
fruit  shall  grow  up,  or  such,  as  falling  from  the  tree  of  life,  shall 
give  assurance  of  immortality."  ' 

The  reader  will  recall  a  very  similar  tone  in  the 
proverbial  philosophy  of  the  Fable-books,  which  are 

1  Bastian,  Rciseu  in  China,  p.  61S. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  599 

largely  due  to  Buddhist  influences,  and  show  how 
elastic  to  the  demands  of  freedom  are  even  this  strong 
sense  of  the  transient  and  unreal,  and  this  stringent 
assertion  of  moral  destinies. 

It  is  not  meant  that  this  intuition  of  moral  order,  this 
veneration  for  moral  cause  and  consequence,  Freedom  in 
left  full  scope  for  human  freedom.  Destiny  was  determinism- 
more  or  less  master  of  the  Oriental  mind.  But  while 
we  recognize  this,  we  must  not  forget  to  inquire  what 
elements  of  freedom  lie  in  the  very  conception  of  des- 
tiny, what  power  this  master  has  to  arouse  and  initiate 
mastership  in  its  subject.  There  is  recognition  of 
divine  necessity  in  every  great  step  of  protest,  in  all 
philosophy  of  reform.  Hero  and  saint  are  free  only 
through  the  inevitable,  the  predetermined,  the  irresist- 
ible ;  through  the  all-absorbing  and  supplanting  Right. 
Fate  is  the  principle  of  progress  in  all  religion  ;  and  in 
India  as  in  Greece,  in  Buddha  as  in  Prometheus,  this, 
as  supreme  Moral  Order,  calls  the  old  forms  of  deity 
to  judgment,  and  leads  forward  to  new  fields  of  faith. 
It  is  in  and  through  a  sense  of  destiny,  a  genius 
neither  to  be  ignored  nor  disobeyed,  that  the  soul  ever 
and  again  substantiates  its  freedom  afresh  ;  enforces 
the  right  of  its  new  vision  to  unmake  the  creeds  and 
masters  that  old  wants  had  made  for  it ;  affirms  its  lien 
on  the  resources  of  the  universe,  its  right  of  eminent 
domain  in  its  own  household  of  worship  and  work. 
And  so  the  time  came  when  all  the  divinities  of  Brah- 
manism,  even  up  to  the  "  eternal  Brahma  "  himself,  had 
to  meet  the  unsparing  logic  of  an  idea,  the  very  sub- 
stance of  which  was  necessary  law. 

Buddhism  put  the  whole  faith  of  the  time  through 
this  crucible   of  karma,  or  moral    order  and  Omnipo- 
destiny.      This  explains  its  later  cosmogony  ^""1  order 
and  mythology.     The   revolutions  of  matter,  inKarnu' 


600  BUDDHISM. 

the  destructions  and  renovations  of  the  universe,  with 
which  it  marked  the  track  of  endless  ages,  were  but 
the  play  of  this  transcendent  force,  the  product  of 
moral  determinations.  Out  of  these  imperishable 
germs  of  essential  right,  these  loyalties  of  time  and 
force  to  eternal  law,  comes  the  wind  that  breathes  in 
the  spaces  of  desolation  from  all  sides,  to  renew  the 
worlds ;  out  of  these  the  primitive  energies  which  at 
enormous  katya  intervals  destroy  the  "  worlds  of  form  " 
up  to  the  very  borders  of  "the  formless,"  nearest  nir- 
vana the  supreme  abode ;  and  through  the  half  a  of 
"  emptiness  "  which  intervenes  between  this  destruction 
and  the  new  birth  of  things,  these  moral  destinies 
endure,  the  only  germs  of  reconstruction.1  They  are 
like  the  Scandinavian  "golden  dice  of  destiny,"  found 
again,  and  unharmed,  after  the  "Twilight  of  the  gods," 
in  the  growing  grass  of  a  new-risen  earth. 

This  is  stupendous  fatalism  ;  but  how  it  clings  to 

those  eternal  distinctions  by  which  the  con- 
its  idealism.  j 

science  lives  !  It  is  at  least  pure  idealism  :  it 
makes  sense  the  outcome  of  spiritual  fact  and  experi- 
ence;  and  the  energy  of  its  protest,  criticism,  and 
reconstructive  power  will  show  us  that  it  was  not  such 
a  fatalism  as  must  of  itself  abolish  freedom. 

The  older  Sutras  speak  of  the  gods  as  rejoicing  at 

Buddha's  revelation.    Their  heavens  trembled, 

Negation 

for  positive  when  the  great  light  shone  through  them; 
e"ds'  yet  Brahma  told  them  the  glad  tidings  of 
release,  which  were  for  them  also,  and  a  cry  arose, 
"The  might  of  the  gods  increases,  the  might  of  the 
asuras  (evil  powers)  fails."2  The  legend  shows  at 
least  the  geniality  with  which  Buddhism  did  its  work. 

1  Koeppen,  I.  268-284. 

2  Dharnuisastra  Sutras,  in  Journal  A  siatiq?ie  for  1870,  p.  377. 


SPECULATIVE   PRINCIPLES.  601 

But  its  work  was  a  radical  one.  Its  pungent  logic 
invented  even  more  destructive  terms  for  the  illuso- 
riness  of  phenomenal  life  than  Brahmanism.  Its 
founder  himself,  as  a  visible  person,  was  made  to 
issue  from  the  womb  of  the  beautiful  Mayadevi,  the 
"Perfection  of  Illusion."  It  exalted  the  dignity  of 
Buddhahood  as  the  attainment  of  truth,  far  beyond  the 
recognized  sainthood  or  what  it  adored.  As  Brahma 
had  supplanted  the  Vedic  gods,  so  the  stern  logic  of 
time  and  death  now  supplanted  Brahma.  Accepting 
without  difficulty  the.  whole  series  of  divinities,  popular 
and  speculative,  as  phenomena,  Buddhism  swept  them 
all  into  that  common  category  of  subjection  to  change 
and  death,  from  which  Brahmanism  had  excepted  the 
world  of  Brahma  alone.  All  names  and  forms  with 
which  definite  conceptions  had  become  associated  were 
alike  summoned  to  receive  their  sentence,  and  yield 
to  a  greater  than  themselves. 

For  within  this  unsparing  logic  of  negation  there 
was  a  positive  faith  :  a  sense  of  eternal  being  made 
it  bold  to  affirm  wherein  all  these  names  and  forms 
failed  to  satisfy  the  highest  demand.  The  Buddha, 
the  "illumined,  awakened"  man,  alone  could  know, 
in  nirvana  beyond  them  all,  the  purpose  and  goal  of 
life. 

The  Brahmans,  it  is  true,  soon  came  to  regard  the  new 
movement  as  atheism.  And  this  was  natural ;  since 
it  does  not  appear  that  Gotama  and  his  earliest  follow- 
ers spent  their  thought  on  defining  or  even  conceiving 
a  new  form  of  deity.  It  was  precisely  the  absence  of 
such  definite  form  that  their  religious  sentiment  itself 
demanded  ;  and  they  preached  their  ideal  good  simply 
as  independence  of  the  limits  they  criticised.  It  was 
counted  atheism  in  Kapila  when  he  denied  an  Is'wara, 


602  BUDDHISM. 

an  external  Lord  and  interfering  Providence.  And 
here  were  others  who  dethroned  all  existing  forms 
under  which  deity  was  conceived ;  who  denied  that 
even  Brahma  could  offer  an  asylum  in  his  own  nature 
from  the  sorrowful  doom  of  change  and  death  that 
swept  through  all  existence.  To  every  recognized 
form  of  being ;  to  every  conception  which  had  become 
fixed  by  usage  or  by  instituted  worship  within  definite 
lines  of  meaning,  they  applied  one  test,  and  the  an- 
swer was  always  the  same.  They  could  admit  no 
definite  idea  of  deity,  therefore,  and  no  Name.  But 
what  was  it,  again  let  me  ask,  that  could  have  applied 
this  test  of  transiency,  but  an  ever-present  sense  of 
the  eternal?  Of  not  less  moment  is  the  question: 
Does  belief  in  deity  reside  essentially  in  definite  ideas 
or  names?  1 

It  does  not  yet  appear  that  there  is  any  just  ground 
No  absolute  either  in  historic  fact  or  rational  thought  for 
atheism.  attributing  absolute  atheism  to  any  people. 
Behind  the  most  positive  assertions  of  it,  even  in 
speculative  philosophy,  there  seems  to  be  very  clear 
indication,  or  else  implication,  of  the  necessity,  in 
every  sane  mind,  to  recognize  a  moral  order,  and  an 
eternal  principle  of  Rightness  in  some  form  sovereign 
in  the  universe,  and  competent  to  at  least  every  result 


1  D'Alwis  {Buddhist  Nirv&na,  p.  13)  thinks  that  the  doctrine  of  Buddhism  from  the 
outset  was  "point-blank  A  tits  ism."  Yet  he  admits  that  the  belief  in  a  First  Cause  is  in- 
eradicably  "implanted  in  the  soul;  "  that  the  savage  and  the  Buddhist  thinker  are  alike 
conscious  of  it ;  and  that  Buddha  himself  "did  not  ignore  it."  This  First  Cause,  how- 
ever, is  (p  60)  "  nothing."  (!)  In  other  words,  the  representative  of  an  ineradicable  neces- 
sity for  believing  in  something  is  —  nothing  at  all ;  and  that  for  a  quarter  of  the  human  race. 
I,  of  course,  would  neither  misrepresent  the  views  of  this  evidently  accomplished  scholar, 
nor  ascribe  to  them  a  manifest  absurdity.  The  incongruity  of  the  statements  above 
quoted  arises,  I  presume,  from  limiting  the  idea  of  God,  which  is  ineradicable,  to  that 
of  a  definite  creator  (Iswara)  or  Beginner,  at  a  first  moment  of  time;  an  idea  which 
is  as  certainly  quite  outside  the  Buddhist  line  of  vision,  and  is  by  no  means  ineradi- 
cable. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  603 

which  we  are  wont  in  ordinary  speech  to  ascribe  to 
intelligence,  and  to  intelligence  alone. 

Koeppen,  himself  an  important  authority  on  the 
history  of  Buddhism,  gives  a  long  list  of  co-  Buddhist 
authorities  who  affirm  that  it  has  "absolutely  "atheism" 
no  trace  of  the  idea  of  a  God."1  And  this  is  the 
prevailing  opinion  of  the  Christian  world.  But  writers 
who  speak  of  a  God  will  always  be  found  to  have 
given  a  meaning  to  the  idea  of  God  which  involves 
more  or  less  distinctly  the  Hebrew  and  Christian 
theory  of  an  original  creation,  proceeding  at  a  given 
time  from  a  divine  pre-existent  Will.  Buddhism,  on 
the  other  hand,  recognizes  no  such  beginning,  either 
to  the  chain  of  transient  causes  and  effects,  or  to  the 
revolutions  of  the  worlds  ;  and  is  therefore,  by  the 
theory  in  question,  pure  atheism.2  But  we  must  reflect 
that  Mind  considered  in  the  former  sense  —  as  his- 
torically pre-existent  to  manifestation,  and  choosing 
it  at  a  definite  moment  in  its  continuous  life  —  is  in 
reality  thereby  represented  as  subject  to  the  conditions 
of  time.  It  is  not  eternal  in  a  true  sense,  since  eter- 
nity knows  no  Before  nor  After.  And  such  creative 
act  at  a  definite  moment,  as  the  aforesaid  critics  insist 
on,  would  be,  as  Buddhism  replies,  but  one  of  a  series 
of  acts  in  time,  itself  requiring  a  previous  act,  and  so 
cannot  reveal  an  original  nor  an  eternal  cause.  And 
Buddhism  may  go  further  still.  It  may  maintain  that 
its  own  conception  of  a  limitless  ^process  of  becoming? 
a  manifestation  of  cause  and  effect  without  bemnnincr 
or  end,  —  although  excluding  creation  in  the  Semitic 

1  Koeppen,  I.  228.     See  also  Hardwick,  Christ  and  Other  Masters,  I.  p.  229. 

2  Its  attribution  of  birth  and  form,  as  such,  to  avidya,  or  ignorance,  does  not  seem  to 
be  the  admission  of  a  first  cause  ;  since  this  reasoning  has  relation  only  to  the  generation 
of  conceptions  in  the  human  mind.     On  the  other  hand,  see  D'Alwis,  p.  15. 

3  Koeppen,  I.  230. 


604  BUDDHISM. 

or  the  Christian  sense,  as  well  as  an  Iswara,  or  in- 
dividual Lord,  —  does  not  in  any  sense  exclude  eter- 
nal Being,  which  must,  on  the  contrary,  be  assumed 
as  ground  for  the  endlessness  of  the  Becoming.  So 
much  for  the  metaphysics  of  the  question. 

But,  however  other  religions  and  civilizations  may 
interpret  their  speculation,  the  Buddhists  as  a  whole 
do  somehow  find  their  way  to  the  satisfaction  of  an 
instinct  which  we  may  properly  call  universal ;  of 
which,  at  all  events,  we  cannot,  without  the  strongest 
evidence,  ^conceive  whole  races  and  generations  to  be 
destitute.  Koeppen  has  himself  quoted  passages  in 
which  the  Buddha  is  addressed  as  "God  of  Gods, 
Brahma  of  Brahmas,  Indra  of  Indras,  Father  of  the 
world,  Almighty  and  All-knowing,  Ruler  and  Re- 
deemer of  all."  l 

The  same  writer  asserts  that  the  earliest  Buddhists 
offered  no  prayer,  because  Buddha  had  entered  nir- 
vana and  could  not  hear ;  and  that  their  so-called 
prayers  were  really  only  formulas  of  confession, 
hymns  of  praise,  pious  ejaculations,  blessings,  and 
uttered  longings.2  But  devout  aspirations  are  the 
proper  substance  of  prayer,  and  are  none  the  less 
recognition  of  a  source  of  strength  higher  than  human, 
for  not  consciously  defining  this  in  objective  personal 
form,  nor  even  taking  the  shape  of  direct  invocation  or 
address.  There  is  more  religion  in  one  divine  desire 
than  in  manybeseechings.  Later,  as  Koeppen  himself 
concedes,  the  "  Thou  "  was  added  ;  and  the  northern 
Buddhists,  especially,  have  abundant  forms  of  prayer, 
in  which  either  Gotama.  Buddha,  or  the  divine  Triad 
of  later  ecclesiastical  origin,  or  the  earlier  Buddhas 

1  Koeppen,  I   430.     So  Hardy,  Manual,  pp.  360,  384,  386. 

3  Koeppen,  I.  554,  555 ;  Wuttke,  II.  544.     Also  Schlagintweit,  Buddhism  in  Thibet. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  605 

of  this  kalfa  (age  of  the  world),  are  addressed  as 
conscious  hearers  of  their  worshippers ;  and  it  is 
added  that  a  very  slight  alteration  would  render  these 
effusions  suitable  for  Christian  worship.1  In  illustra- 
tion, a  Mongolian  prayer  is  quoted,2  of  which  I  give 
a  portion :  — 

"  O  Thou  in  whom  all  creatures  trust,  Buddha,  perfected  amidst 
countless  revolutions  of  worlds,  compassionate  towards  all,  and 
their  eternal  salvation,  bend  down  into  this  our  sphere,  with  all  thy 
society  of  perfected  ones.  Thou  law  of  all  creatures,  brighter  than 
the  sun,  in  faith  we  humble  ourselves  before  thee.  Thou  who  com- 
pletest  all  pilgrimage,  who  dwellest  in  the  world  of  rest,  before 
whom  all  is  but  transient,  descend  by  thy  almighty  power,  and 
bless  us." 

Every  attribute  of  deity,  the  creative  only  excepted, 
is  freely  ascribed  to  the  Buddha  by  his  worshippers : 
omnipotence,  omnipresence,  perfect  love  and  bliss.3 
The  modern  schools  of  the  south  generally  believe  in 
"absorption  into  the  supreme  and  infinite  Buddha."4 
Ritter  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  the  essential  feature 
of  Buddhism  to  be,  that  a  man,  freeing  himself  from 
obstacles  of  nature  by  holiness,  may  save  his  fellow-man 
from  the  corruption  of  the  times  and  become  supreme 
God."6  Here,  just  as  in  Christianity,  the  religious 
sentiment,  while  concentrating  itself  on  a  human  deity, 
nevertheless  really  invested  his  humanity  with  an 
infinite  meaning.  So  far  indeed  as  the  concentration 
is  exclusive  in  either  case,  exacting  worship  as  the 
due  of  this  o?ie  man,  in  absolute  distinction  from  all 
other  actual  or  possible  men,  it  indicates  imperfect 
recognition  of  that  divineness  of  the  human,  on  which 

1  Koeppen,  I.  554,  SSS :  Wuttke,  II.  544-  s  Pallas,  II.  3S6. 

8  Franck,  Etudes  Orientates,  p.  46. 

*  Bigandet,  Legend  0/  the  Burmese  Buddha,  p.  320. 

8  Hist.  Anc.  Philos.,  I.  94-96. 


606  BUDDHISM. 

it  substantially  rests ;  and  this  defect  only  freedom 
and  intelligence  can  correct.  But  in  none  of  these 
crude  forms  of  belief  can  the  idealization  which  puts 
a  historical  person  in  the  place  of  the  Infinite  be 
properly  called  atheism.  To  the  Buddha  of  the  East 
as  to  the  Christ  of  the  West  were  really  ascribed 
those  powers  which  made  up  the  popular  conception 
of  Deity. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  further,  that  Buddhahood  itself 
is  held  to  be  perpetual  reproduction  of  an  eternal  fact. 
An  endless  succession  of  Buddhas  must  associate  the 
idea  itself  with  infinity,  and  lift  Buddha-worship  above 
the  evanescence  that  will  attach  to  all  these  personal 
forms  in  their  individual  capacity.  The  particular 
Buddha  must  be  to  an  extent  lost,  for  the  worshipper, 
in  the  exhaustless  productivity  of  that  Intelligence  of 
which  he  is  but  one  expression. 

This  deeper  logic  of  faith  cannot,  it  is  true,  wholly 
overcome  the  tendency  to  concentrate  worship  on 
some  one  personage  ;  a  tendency  which  is  found  in 
all  positive  religions,  and  is  associated  with  natural 
gratitude  and  love.  Yet  Buddhism  has  been  fertile  in 
the  production  of  new  centres  of  worship,  adapted  to 
different  ages  and  races.  Its  later  mythology  in  the 
north  is  not  wanting  in  names  of  ideal  saints,  Dhyani 
Bodhisattvas,  who  have  been  venerated  like  Gotama. 
The  most  important  of  these  are  Amitabha,  or  Ever- 
lasting Light ;  Jlfandshttsri,  the  mild  Holy  One  ;  and 
Avalokiteszvara,  the  K  Lord  who  looks  down  on  men  :  " 
to  whom  it  is  believed  the  Thibetans  address  their 
sacred  formula,  Om  mani  -padme  hom,  —  "O  the 
Jetvcl  in  the  Lotus"  1 

Avalokiteswara  is  the  manifested  deity  in  Thibetan 

1  Koeppen,  II.  20-28.  60. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  607 

Buddhism  ;  who  vows  "  to  manifest  himself  to  every 
creature  in  the  universe ;  to  deliver  all  men  from  the 
consequences  of  sin,  and  never  to  arrive  at  Buddha- 
hood  till  all  are  born  into  the  divine  rest,  receiving 
answer  to  their  prayers."  "  He  himself  hears  and 
answers  every  prayer,  and  they  who  trust  in  him 
are  secure." 1    ' 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  similar  are  the  forms 
which  an  immature  theism  has  assumed  in  the  Buddhist 
efforts  of  very  dissimilar  races  to  fix  the  relig-  trinities- 
ious  ideal  in  one  personality,  and  develop  its  faith  and 
cultus  around  this  centre.  Thus  a  divine  triad  has 
been  adored  by  the  Buddhists  both  of  the  North  and 
of  the  South,  from  comparatively  early  times.  Just 
as  the  first  Christians  combined  their  devotion  to 
Christ  with  veneration  for  his  gospel  and  his  apostles, 
so  Buddha  was  united  with  Dharma,  the  Law,  and 
Samgha,  the  teachers,  or  the  Assembly.2  Out  of 
these  elements  was  developed  a  metaphysical  trinity  : 
Intelligence  ;  Law,  as  its  manifestation  ;  and  the  unity 
of  the  two  in  Holiness.3  Cosmological  triads  also  are 
found  in  northern  Buddhism;  such  as  mind,  matter, 
and  their  unity.4  In  Nepal  and  Thibet  the  forms  of 
trinity  become  distinctly  personal ;  and  some  of  them 
startle  the  European  traveller  by  their  resemblance  to  the 
ontological  speculations  of  the  later  German  schools,5 
as  well  as  to  forms  of  the  Christian  Trinitarian  dogma.6 
Koeppen  calls  these  theories  "Buddhistic  but  in  name," 
as  derived  from  Sivaistic  or  other  influences ;  but  they 


1  Beal's  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scripture,  pp.  376,  406. 

2  Lassen,   II.   1084,  Koeppen,  I.  373;  Hardy,  Eastern  Monachism,  p.  209;   Bigan- 
det,  p.  1.     Most  Buddhist  works  begin  with  invocation  to  these  three. 

3  Abel  Remusat,  Sur  la  Relig.  Samaniemie. 

4  Cunningham,  Bhilsa  Topes,  p.  36. 

6  Koeppen,  I.  550-553.  e  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scriptures,  pp.  103,  104. 


608  BUDDHISM. 

are  certainly  made  up  of  Buddhist  elements ;  and,  if 
not  found  in  the  earlier  phases  of  this  religion,  they 
are  none  the  less  natural  growths  within  it,  accom- 
panying its  metaphysical  canon,  and  tend  to  refute  the 
charge  that  it  involves,  of  necessity,  even  speculative 
atheism. 

Indo-Scythian  coins  and  the  temples  of  Nepal 
Adib  ddh  aff*ord  proof  that  the  belief  in  a  supreme,  all- 
seeing  Buddha,  represented  by  two  Eyes  as 
symbols  of  intelligence,  was  current  in  those  regions 
at  least  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.1 

The  Nepalese  say  that  "  Szvayambhu,  the  self-exist- 
ent, called  Adibuddha,  was  when  nothing  else  was. 
He  wished  to  become  many,  and  produced  the  Budd- 
has  through  union  with  his  desire.  Adibuddha  was 
never  seen.  He  is  pure  light."2  In  the  topes  dedi- 
cated to  this  deity,  no  deposits  of  relics  have  been 
found  ;  but  the  symbolic  Eyes  were  placed  on  the  sides 
or  the  crown  of  the  edifice.3  Lassen  even  believes 
that  the  recognition  of  supreme  Mind  can  be  traced 
back  by  these  vestiges  alone  to  the  earliest  Budd- 
hists.4 The  school  which  worships  Adibuddha  is 
perhaps  confined  to  regions  where  external  influences 
have  been  active.5  Bastian,  however,  in  his  recent 
work  on  Central  Asia,  an  immense  collection  of  per- 
sonal observations,  tells  us  that  the  Buddhists  generally, 
in  that  part  of  the  world,  worship  Abida,  as  the  highest 
God,  to  whom  all  perfections  are  ascribed.  "  Abida's 
thought  is  almighty.  All  spirits  of  thought  are  subject 
to  his  sway.  He,  the  father  of  the  gods,  knows  all, 
past,  present,  and  to  come." 6 

1  Lassen,  II.  1084.  2  Hodgson  in  Transact.  R.  A.  Soc,  II.  232,  238. 

3  Bhilsa  Topes,  p.  8.  *  Ut  supra. 

6  Koeppen,  II.  28,  29,  366;  Wilson's  Relig.  of  Hindus,  II-  361. 
«  Bastian,  p.  567.      See  also,  for  theistic  sects,  Salisbury's  Essay  in  Hist,  of  BudaViism, 
in  Amer.  Or.  Journ.  for  1849. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  609 

That  later  Buddhist  metaphysics  sometimes,  as  in 
the  Prajnd  Pdramitd,  press  the  sense  of  tran- 

.   ...  ,  .  «...  Nihilism. 

science  and  illusion  to  the  point  of  declaring 
that  "  even  the  highest  names  are  but  words,  not  signs 
of  realities,"  is  true.1  One  school  affirms  Buddha's 
personal  appearance  to  have  been  illusion,  as  the 
Docetists  did  that  of  Jesus.  So  their  dialectic,  as  we 
have  seen,  deals  in  the  antinomies  of  the  understand- 
ing, and  shows  plainly  enough  that  logical  processes 
cannot  establish  certitude. 

These  metaphysical  portions  of  the  canon  are  as 
thoroughly  nihilistic  as  words  can  make  them.  But 
the  words  give  a  large  margin  for  interpretation,  and 
we  must  read  between  their  lines.  Buddha  says  in  the 
Prajna  Paramita  :  "  I  must  conduct  to  Nirvana  the  in- 
numerable creatures ;  yet  there  exist  neither  creatures 
to  be  conducted  thither,  nor  creatures  to  conduct  them." 
"Not  less"  he  adds,  "  are  all  these  creatures  to  be 
conducted  there.  How  is  this?  Because  an  illusion 
constitutes  them  as  they  are."a  In  other  words,  the 
illusory  present  existence,  and  the  reality  of  nirvana, 
are  alike  to  be  recognized  and  acted  on,  as  facts. 
The  same  work  says  of  the  saint,  who  has  risen  above 
"  seizing  the  form,"  that  he  "  has  not  attained  nirvana 
because  he  has  not  reached  the  eighteen  distinct  con- 
ditions of  a  Buddha."3  Eighteen  distinct  conditions, 
after  having  laid  aside  the  whole  conception  of 
definite  forms !  Is  it  not  plain  that  this  negative 
phraseology  has  but  little  of  that  strictness  of  mean- 
ing it  would  have  with  us? 

But  there  is  another  element  in  the  question. 
Metaphysical  or  logical  processes,  however  skeptical 

1  See  extracts  collected  by  Wuttke,  II.  536,  and  Wilson,  II.  364. 
i  Burnouf,  p.  478.  8  Ibid.,  p.  470. 

39 


6lO  BUDDHISM. 

or  even  nihilistic,  do  not  necessarily  imply  positive 
atheism ;  since  the  protest  of  the  moral  nature  against 
that  conclusion  may  be  such  as  to  transcend  all  specu- 
lative objections  to  the  idea  of  God,  and  is  not  to  be  set 
aside  in  any  case  by  arguments  drawn  from  the  under- 
standing alone.  Such  negative  processes  in  fact  do 
not  imply  even  speculative  atheism,  but  may  become 
the  very  ground  on  which  deity  is  affirmed  to  be  the 
only  essential  reality.1 

The  Alexandrian  philosophers,  for  instance,  tracked 
the  phenomenal  through  every  possible  form  of  its 
conception  with  their  probe  of  metaphysical  negation  ; 
yet  only  to  reach  beyond  them  all,  beyond  reasoning, 
or  the  thinking  faculty,  beyond  reason  itself  as  an 
active  force  (kmxziva  rov  vdv~),  one  indivisible,  eternal 
Substance,  whereof  nothing  real  or  perfect  could  be 
denied.2  And  for  the  attainment  of  real  being  they 
affirmed  the  necessary  condition  to  be  a  divine  exal- 
tation (exoracig)  of  the  mind  through  this  abdication 
of  the  selfhood,  this  negation  of  all  finiteness.  The 
Buddhist  dhyanas,  or  stages  of  contemplation,  and  the 
so-called  "formless  worlds"  which  are  the  nearest 
stages  to  nirvana,  answer  in  many  respects  to  this 
ecstasy  of  Platonic  mystics.  The  parallelism  is  re- 
markable, and  points  to  the  conclusion  that  nihilistic 
speculations  should  never  be  conceived  as  having  sat- 
isfied the  whole  spiritual  demand  of  those  who  have 
pursued  them,  never  be  made  the  gauge  for  testing 
the  possibilities  of  a  religion  to  which  they  may  be 
referred. 

"  Take  away  nihilism,"  it  has  been  said,  "  and  you 


1  There  is,  however,  no  evidence  that  the  statements  of  the  Prajn&  P&ramitci 
those  of  Buddha  himself.     Burnouf,  Introd.  to  Buddh.,  p.  483. 

2  See  especially  Plotinus,  Ewieads,  V.  iii,  vi. 


are 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  6l  I 

take  away  the  only  remedy,  to  the  Buddhist,  for  the 
danger  of  existence.""1  This  depends,  of  course,  on 
the  meaning  we  give  to  terms.  It  is  at  least  equally 
true  that  if  you  allow  nihilism,  you  take  away  all 
motive  in  the  Buddhist  for  seeking  freedom  from 
existence.  "  Life,"  says  the  same  writer,  "  arises 
[in  Buddhist  belief]  from  absence  of  knowledge. 
Call  it  ignorance,  or  what  you  will,  it  is  noth- 
ing."2 But,  here  again,  we  may  say:  the  "life" 
that  arises  from  absence  of  knowledge  must  be  of  that 
nature  which  its  -presence  would  abolish  ;  and  there- 
fore cannot  be  life  in  an  absolute  sense,  since  the 
presence  of  knowledge  without  life  is  a  self-contra- 
diction. 

It  is  certain,  whatever  may  be  true  of  metaphysical 
statements,  that  neither  nihilism  nor  atheism  character- 
izes the  mass  of  Buddhist  literature,  the  rites  of  the 
Buddhist  Church,  or,  as  a  whole,  the  sects  into  which 
it  has  become  divided.3  It  would  indeed  be  fatal  to 
our  hopes  for  human  nature,  if  we  could  be  forced  to 
believe  that  four  hundred  millions  of  at  least  partially 
civilized  people  have  made  a  religion  out  of  the  love 
of  nonentity,  or  indeed  out  of  mere  negation  in  any 
'form.  The  apparent  atheism  of  the  Buddhist  is,  in 
substance,  opposition  to  the  idea  of  an  external  God, 
limited  and  individual,  acting  in  imperfect  human 
ways.  This  view  is  illustrated  by  a  work,  recently 
translated  from  the  Siamese,  written  in  defence  of 
Buddhism  against  Christianity,  by  the  minister  of  the 
late  king  of  Siam,  and  called  "  The  Modern  Budd- 

i  D'Alwis,  p.  21.  2  Ibid. 

3  Burnouf  {Inlrod.,  p.  441)  thinks  the  Sv&bhavika  School  of  Nepal  deny  a  spiritual 
principle.  Babu  Rajendralal  Mitra  says  (Journ-  Bengal  As.  Soc,  xxvii.) :  "  The  Budd- 
hists are  theists,  and  believers  in  immortality."  He  even  seeks  to  point  out  affinities 
between  Buddhist  and  Odinic  trinities. 


6l2  BUDDHISM. 

hist."1  "If  God,"  he  argues,  "makes  the  rain,  he 
should  make  it  fall  equally  all  over  the  earth."  "  If 
fever  is  a  visitation  of  God,  there  would  be  no  running 
away  from  it."  It  is  evidently  the  capricious  God  of 
the  Christian  missionaries  who  is  here  disproved  upon 
their  own  ground.  Again,  his  apparently  antitheistic 
statement  —  that  "the  divine  Spirit  is  but  the  actual 
spirit  or  disposition  of  man,  good  or  evil  "  — refers  to 
the  karma,  or  moral  law,  as  sovereign  in  every  human 
soul,  the  expression  of  a  divine  unchangeable  Order, 
dealing  with  the  characters  of  each.  This  statement 
in  reality  emphasizes  the  inward  unity  of  God  with 
man.  And  in  inviting  "comparison  between  the 
idea  of  a  divinity  going  about  in  all  directions,  and 
Buddha's  idea  that  the  divine  all-knowing  Bestower 
of  rewards  and  punishments  is  merit  and  demerit 
(karma)  itself,"  the  writer  is  but  exalting  the  eternal 
sway  of  justice,  as  against  the  arbitrary  God  of  Chris- 
tian dogma. 

Miiller  agrees  with  Burnouf  and  St.  Hilaire,  men 
Muiier's  nowise  comparable  with  him  in  spiritual  in- 
view.  sight  and  recognition,  in  pronouncing  Gotama 
an  atheist.  Yet  he  admits  that  tradition  is  an  unsafe 
guide,  and  that  the  "  atheism,"  whatever  it  might 
mean,  did  not  consist  in  any  distinct  denial  of  the 
existence  either  of  gods  or  of  God.2  In  his  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Dhammapada,  however  (p.  xxxi.),  this 
eminent  authority  quotes  from  Spence  Hardy's  "  Le- 
gends of  Buddhism,"  and  Gogerly's  translations  of 
the  Sutras,  in  proof  that  such  absolute  denial  can 
hardly  be  doubted.  Yet  these  passages  are  apparently 
but  affirmations  of  superiority  to  all  the  old  deities,  and 
refutations  of  the  claims  of  Brahma  in  special,  placed 

1  Alabaster,  Wheel  of  the  Law.  2  Chips,  I.  287. 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  613 

in  the  mouth  of  Buddha  by  his  disciples.  At  most 
their  negation  seems  but  to  cover  the  idea  of  a  purely 
external  creator,  a  distinct  and  separate  cause ;  and 
they  are  not  inconsistent  with  a  pantheistic  recognition 
of  infinite  Intelligence  immanent  in  the  worlds  and 
forms  of  being.  It  is  singular  that  the  excellence  of 
Gotama's  moral  doctrine  and  the  purity  and  nobility 
of  his  life,  which  forbade  Miiller  to  believe  that  he 
could  have  "  thrown  away  so  powerful  a  weapon  in  the 
hands  of  a  religious  teacher"  as  the  belief  in  immor- 
tality, should  not  have  seemed  to  him  a  sufficient 
answer  to  the  charge  of  atheism  also.1  And  the  posi- 
tiveness  of  Miiller's  statement  on  this  point  is  the  more 
surprising,  from  the  fact  that  he  finds  no  authority  for 
believing  that  Buddha  really  instituted  the  metaphys- 
ical doctrines  ascribed  to  him,  or  had  other  than  a 
very  simple  popular  philosophy  of  life.2  %y  ,'CiuL 

Just  here  is  indeed  the  real  answer  to  the  indictment  \ 
brought  by  Christian  theism  against  the  faith  of  *&**!$  *Q 

more  than  a  third  of  the  human  race.  For  all  fines  the  $*#£?**  \t 
its  penetrating  sense  of  a  doom  of  sorrow  and  charge?  n>n  n ,  f. 
death  attached  to  every  conceivable  form  of  life,  for 
all  its  weariness  of  the  endless  recurrence  of  transmi- 
grations and  the  "bonds  of  action,"  Buddhism  did  not 
consign  men  over  to  the  sensualist's  "  let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die."  It  drew  a  different 
conclusion  from  its  premise  of  pain.  It  said  in  sub- 
stance :  "  So  be  it  then.  Yet  shalt  thou  not  despair, 
but  freely  accept  destiny,  and  abandon  desire  for 
things  that  cannot  satisfy  because  they  cannot  endure. 
Release  thyself  from  such  desire :  release  others, 
release  all  men ;  and  believe  that  thou  canst  do  this, 

1  See  articles  on  Buddhism  and  Nirv&na,  in  Chips,  &c,  I.  234,  287. 

2  Ibid,  p.  225.     So  also  Weber,  Vorlesuugen,  p.  253,  267. 


614  BUDDHISM. 

and  that  it  is  well  worth  thy  while  and  theirs  that  it 
be  done.  And  do  this  by  self-sacrifice,  mercy,  justice, 
trust  in  each  other ;  b}'  every  form  of  moral  discipline, 
every  possibility  of  love.  Let  the  very  burdens  of  the 
common  lot  lift  you  to  such  high  faith  and  purpose, 
such  energy  of  mutual  help." 

"  What  is  the  fruit  of  the  Bodhisattvds  thought  ?  —  Answer  : 
Higher  morality,  higher  perception  of  truth,  great  love,  great  pity." 
"  A  spirit  exempt  from  anger  ;  a  spirit  of  compassion  for  the  wan- 
dering ;  a  spirit  which  forbids  falling  away  from  wisdom ;  a  spirit 
of  perseverance  to  the  end." 

"  What  is  his  rule  of  duty  ?  —  To  attach  himself  with  high  de- 
sire to  all  laws  of  virtue  ;  not  to  despise  the  ignorant ;  to  be  a  friend 
to  all  men  ;  to  expect  no  more  from  transmigration." 

"  What  his  bliss  f  —  The  joy  of  having  seen  a  Buddha  ;  of  hav- 
ing heard  the  law  ;  of  not  repenting  in  giving  ;  of  having  procured 
the  good  of  all  creatures." 

"  What  his  health  f  —  The  sound  body  ;  the  mind  not  drawn  to 
perishing  things  ;  bringing  all  beings  into  right  and  equal  condition  ; 
freedom  from  doubt,  on  every  law." 

"  To  what  should  he  adhere  ?  —  To  meditation,  to  beneficence  ; 
to  compassionate  love  ;  to  the  disciplines  of  wisdom. 

"  Since  consciousness,  body,  life,  self,  are  illusion,  therefore  is 
there  perfection  in  morality,  in  ecstasy,  in  wisdom,  in  release."  l 

Truth,   justice,    love,  —  these    at   least   were   real. 

Through  abysses  of  "  nihilism  "  itself,  if  so  it 

stance  of    be  called,  certainly  out  of  the  dreary  bondage 

religion.     o^  transmjgrati0n,  man  reached  upward  to  grasp 

these,  undoubting;  nay,  more,  with  ardor  and  zeal. 

"  The  worlds  may  be  blown  away  in  a  storm  ;  the  sun  and  moon 
may  fall ;  the  rivers  may  turn  back  to  their  sources ;  the  sky  may 
be  rent,  the  earth  destroyed  ;  Maha  Meru  be  broken  to  pieces ;  but 
the  Buddhas  cannot  utter  an  untruth." 2 

1  Doctrine  of  the  Four  Perfections,  from  Sutras  of  tlie  Great  Vehicle-  See  Feer,  in 
Journal  A  siatique  for  1867,  pp.  279-316.  Yet  writers  of  ability  and  a  liberal  spirit  speak 
of  this  faith  as  having  its  root  in  selfishness,  and  meaning  only  self-absorption  ! 

2  Legends  of  Budd/ui,  in  Hardy's  Matcual-,  p.  332  ! 


SPECULATIVE    PRINCIPLES.  615 

The  eternal  light  of  morality  shone  clear,  rendering 
an  idea  of  destiny  nobly  productive,  in  which  other  re- 
ligions read  grounds  for  despair  only.  If  such  faith 
is  atheistic,  then  must  we  allow  to  one  form  of  atheism, 
at  least,  the  meaning  of  worship.  In  the  theoretic 
denial,  what  practical  affirmation  of  deity  ! 

It  is  indeed  the  truth  of  all  time,  and  deep  as  human 
experience,  that  he  who  holds  fast  to  moral  realities  is 
at  one  with  the  eternally  real  itself.  One  may  disclaim 
all  knowledge  of  God,  yet  his  adherence  to  these  shall 
preserve  the  loyalty  which  is  absolute  trust  and  faith, 
and  possess  the  substance  of  freedom  and  truth.  Is  it 
not  plain  that  deity  may  be  verbally  and  intellectually 
disavowed,  simply  because  too  intimate  and  familiar 
to  be  outwardly  observed ;  because,  in  fact,  no  other 
than  the  seer's  very  eye  itself,  by  which  he  sees? 

The  more  absolute  the  theoretic  negation  of  deity, 
then,    the   more   positive   would    become   the 

.     .  .  .  Value  of 

religious  value  of  a  moral  idealism,  associated  Buddhist 
with  it,  in  some  respects  unsurpassed  in  hu-  ethlcs' 
man  history.  What  if  Buddhism  be  found  to  have 
swept  all  conceivable  objects  of  faith  into  an  "  abysmal 
negation"?  Yet  so  earnest,  so  believing,  so  devout 
was  it  in  the  pursuit  of  this,  that  the  very  negation 
flushed  into  life ;  became  a  positive  ground  of  faith, 
an  entity  real  and  divine.  This  is  perfectly  conceiv- 
able. And  it  is  also  certain  as  a  matter  of  history. 
Practically,  the  negation  which  the  devout  Buddhist 
pronounced  against  existence  was  somehow  resolved, 
for  him,  into  a  best,  a  highest  goal ;  in  a  word,  into 
deity.  For  what  else  is  that  which  men  long  for, 
cherish,  love,  adore?  What  else  shall  we  call  that 
which  stirs  them  to  generous  conduct,  to  ideal  aspira- 
tion, and  bears  fruit  in  pure  morality? 


6l6  BUDDHISM. 

We  come  then  to  the  word  by  which  Buddhism 
expressed  the  end  of  human  striving,  the  issue  of 
all  good.  This  "  nirvana?  confidently  supposed  to 
have  been  nothingness, — how  can  it  have  been  so 
to  those  who  conceived  it  definitely  as  the  eternal 
fact  of  the  universe ;  and  who  affirmed  positively  all 
their  lives,  "  nirvdna  is"  striving  with  all  their  might 
to  reach  it,  and  to  help  other  men  to  do  the  same, 
by  all  the  love  and  sacrifice  they  could  devote?  I  am 
persuaded  that  this  all-reconciling  home  —  whose 
depths,  filled  with  the  saints  of  innumerable  ages, 
invited  all  hearts  to  the  fulfilment  of  their  best  desire  — 
better  deserves  the  name  of  deity  than  of  nonentity ; 
of  Life  than  of  "  the  Void."  Grant  the  passivity  of 
the  Oriental  ideal ;  yet  ideal  it  is,  or  it  could  never 
have  roused  Oriental  passivity  to  such  a  movement  as 
Buddhism.  Ample  testimony  to  the  truth  that  man 
loves  to  affirm  more  than  to  deny ;  that  in  some  form 
he  has  ever  kept  his  intuition  of  God.1 

1  Hints  of  this  have  not  wholly  failed  to  strike  such  writers  as  Hardwick,  who,  though 
seeking  for  contrasts  with  what  he  regards  as  revelations  peculiar  to  Christianity,  admits 
that  northern  Buddhism  "  has  retained  the  lingering  idea  of  some  great  Eeing,  superior  to 
the  highest  created  entities  and  the  source  of  ultimate  felicity.  The  very  Buddha  who 
persisted  in  ignoring  the  Creator  was  sometimes  raised  to  this  dignity,  while  Nirvana  itself 
was  changed  by  popular  imagination  into  a  paradise."  And  Mtiller,  a  more  impartial 
scholar,  who  believes  that  "  the  feeling  of  dependence,  which  is  the  life-spring  of  religion, 
was  completely  numbed  in  the  early  Buddhist  metaphysicians,"  grants  that  it  "  returned 
with  increased  warmth."     Hardwick,  II.  95.    Muller's  Chips,  I.  284. 


II. 

NIRVANA. 


NIRVANA. 


~VX  7E  may  illustrate  by  this  term  the  practical  im- 

*  *  possibility  of  pure  negation.  Etymology 
at  least  fails  to  bear  out  the  confident  assurances  positive 
of  Burnouf,  Koeppen,  Weber,  and  others,  that 
its  "extinction  of  the  lamp  of  existence"  means  absolute 
annihilation.  Nirvana  is  from  nir,  separation  from, 
and  vd,  wind.1  The  simplest  and  most  natural  mean- 
ing seems  to  be,  not  "  blown  out,"  but  "  no  more  wav- 
ing," as  from  presence  of  wind,  no  more  restlessness 
and  change.  It  is  familiar  to  Brahmanical  literature 
as  synonymous  with  words  signifying  release,  emanci- 
pation, the  highest  good.2  It  is  similarly  defined  by 
the  intense  longings  of  devotees,  who  seek  nirvana  as 
K  the  further  shore ; "  "  the  port  beyond  the  ocean  of 
pain;"  "the  medicine  that  cures  all  disease;"  "the 
water  that  quenches  all  thirst ;  "  "complete  fruition  and 
salvation ; "  "  the  city  reached  by  the  path  of  universal 
knowledge,  blessedness,  peace."3  Every  word  that 
can  mean  beatitude  as  a  positive  state  comes  to  hand 


1  Burnouf 's  Sansk.  Diet. 

8  Miiller,  Chips,  I.  2S2.  He  gives  the  word  the  meaning  blown  out,  following  Hindu 
lexicographers.  Yet  he  does  not  find  it  used  in  the  sense  of  annihilation  in  the  older  parts 
of  the  Buddhist  scriptures.  Introd.  to  Dhatnmapada.  Colebrooke  defines  it  as  "  profound 
calm."     Essays,  I.  402. 

3  Koeppen,  I.  304 ;  Burnouf,  442. 


620  BUDDHISM. 

in  description  of  this  apparent  negation.  Figurative 
as  they  are,  these  expressions  imply  that  what  they 
describe  was  an  object  of  supreme  desire.  It  has 
inspired  the  imagination  ;  it  has  allured  the  affections  ; 
it  has  aroused  the  moral  sense ;  it  has  stimulated  to 
incessant  watch  over  the  passions.  It  has  translated 
itself  into  psalms ;  it  has  flowed  into  mythology ;  it 
has  planted,  and  builded,  and  civilized,  in  missions 
that  are  miracles  of  zeal  and  toil.  Philosophical 
treatises  distinctly  aver  that,  "to  him  who  attains  it, 
nirvana  exists."1  Indubitably  so,  we  should  say,  or 
why  should  he  seek  to  attain  it?  Why  are  millions 
travelling  its  "  paths,"  that  shine  with  the  hope  of 
salvation  ? 

But  we  can  go  back  to  more  positive  testimony. 
Testimony  The  Dhammapada,  or  "Path  of  Virtue,"  is 
Dh^mar  PernaPs  ^e  oldest  record  of  Buddhist  faith.2 
pada.  As  such  it  is  believed  to  have  come  to  the 
hands  of  Buddhaghosha,  a  Brahman  convert  of  great 
learning,  in  the  fifth  century,  in  Ceylon.  In  his  trans- 
lation of  the  oldest  commentaries  on  the  law,  out  of 
Singhalese  into  Pali,  its  sentences  are  referred  directly 
to  Gotama  Buddha  himself;  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  were  uttered  given  in  detail.  They 
formed  part  of  an  ancient  collection,  transmitted,  it  was 
believed,  by  the  son  of  the  great  Buddhist  king,  Asoka, 
after  being  established  as  genuine  by  the  famous  coun- 
cil held  (b.c.  246)  at  Pataliputra.  They  are  referred 
to  in  the  monumental  inscriptions  left  by  that  monarch, 
the  most  trustworthy  data  in  Hindu  history.  The 
style  is  plain  and  direct,  the  morality  free  from  tech- 


1  Milinda  Prasna,  quoted  by  Miiller,  Chips,  I.  289. 

2  D'Alwis  (p.  29)  regards  it  as  a  collection  of  sentences  from  the  Pitakas,  which  are 
compilations,  in  the  main  (page  17-18),  of  Gotama's  discourses,  by  his  disciples. 


NIRVANA.  621 

nical  or  mythological  accretions ;  and  the  whole  work 
bears  marks  of  having  originated  in  the  early  ages  of 
the  faith.  It  is  not  possible  to  assign  its  first  appear- 
ance in  a  written  form  to  a  later  period  than  the  first 
century  b.c.1  The  testimony  of  this  best  of  witnesses 
to  the  substance  of  primitive  Buddhism  establishes  the 
fact  that  nirvana,  far  from  meaning  annihilation  in  an 
absolute  sense,  was  positive  exaltation  and  blessed- 
ness, expected  to  follow  upon  deliverance  from  special 
forms  and  embodiments,  through  detachment  from  the 
khandas,  or  elements  of  individuality,  regarded  as 
grounds  of  successive  births  (sansdra),  from  grief, 
impurity,  disease,  selfishness,  passion,  sin ;  in  other 
words,  a  reality,  which  nothing  in  all  this  fateful 
sequence  of  transmigrative  existence  could  express  ; 
an  open  door  of  freedom  and  release,  into  unknown 
and  unimagined  good;  if  a  dream,  certainly  not  a 
dream  of  death,  but  of  escape  from  death. 

"  Patience  is  the  highest  nirvana :  this  the  word  of  the 
Buddhas." 

"  They  who  are  of  a  thoughtful  mind,  constant,  ever  putting 
forth  a  wise  energy,  attain  this,  the  highest  bliss." 

"  Health  is  utmost  gain  ;  content,  the  best  wealth  ;  trust,  the  best 
friend  ;  nirvdna,  the  highest  joy." 

"  Tear  away  attachments  (self-love)  from  thy  being,  as  an  autumn 
lotus  with  thy  hand ;  and  make  thy  way  open  to  nirvdna,  to  rest." 

"  Hunger  is  the  worst  disease  ;  embodiment,  the  greatest  pain  ; 
to  know  this  is  nirvana,  the  highest  joy." 

"  He  who  has  thoughtfulness  and  insight  dwells  near  to  nirvdna." 

1  This  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Weber,  who  has  given  a  careful  version  of  the  work  in 
German  (Ztsch.  d.  D.  M.  G-,  i860),  compiled  from  the  Pali  text  of  three  manuscripts, 
aided  by  the  commentary  of  Buddhaghosha.  He  attaches  great  value  to  the  tradition  of  its 
extreme  antiquity;  and  regards  it  as  "in  the  highest  degree  probable  that  a  large  portion 
of  these  strophes  are  either  verbally  Gotama's,  or  contain  his  precepts  put  into  metrical 
form  by  his  disciples."  Similar  views  as  to  the  date  of  the  work  are  expressed  by  Miiller  in 
the  introduction  to  his  translation  (1870),  which  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  compare  with 
Weber's  before  printing  the  extracts  made  from  the  latter,  in  preparing  the  present  volume. 
See  also  Lassen,  IV.  283. 


622  BUDDHISM. 

"  If  like  a  trumpet  when  it  is  broken,  thou  art  not  roused  [to 
speech],  thou  art  near  nirv&na  :  anger  is  not  known  in  thee  [or, 
there  is  no  noisy  clamor  to  thee]." 

"  The  true  sage  is  he  who  knows  his  former  abodes,  who  sees 
heaven  and  hell,  who  has  reached  the  end  of  births,  and  is  perfect 
in  wisdom." 

"He  who  pays  homage  to  such  as  have  found  deliverance,  and 
know  no  fear,  his  merit  cannot  be  measured." 

"They  who  have  given  up  attachments,  and  rejoice  without 
clinging  to  any  thing,  whose  frailties  have  been  conquered,  and  who 
are  full  of  light,  are  free,  even  in  this  world." 

"  He  who  has  deep  insight  and  wisdom,  who  knows  the  right 
way  and  the  wrong,  he  who  has  attained  the  highest  goal,  him  call 
I  a  Brahmana." 

"  He  who  has  given  up  pleasure  and  pain,  indifferent  to  both,  who 
is  without  ground  {or  germ)  for  new  birth,  who  has  overcome  all 
worlds,  him  call  I  a  Brahmana." 

"  I  have  conquered  all,  I  know  all,  in  all  conditions  of  life  I  am 
free  from  taint ;  I  have  left  all,  and  through  destruction  of  thirst  I 
am  free  :  having  learned  myself,  whom  shall  I  teach  ?  " 

"  Reflection  is  the  path  of  immortality  :  they  who  reflect  do  not 
die."  ! 

Nirvana  is  "the  uncreated,  the  ineffable,  the  im- 
mortal ;  "  "  the  place  of  repose  and  bliss,  where  embodi- 
ments cease  ;  "  "the  other  shore,  beyond  the  power  of 
death,  where  one  is  thoughtful,  guileless,  free  from 
doubt   and    from    all    desires,    and   content."  ~      The 


1  Dhammapada,  w.  184,  23,  204,  285,  203,  372,  134,  423,  19s,  196,  89,  403,  418,  353,  21. 

2  Ibid.,  383,  218,  21,  374,  114,  368,  423,  85,  86,  384,  414.  D'Alwis  translates  these 
phrases  somewhat  differently  from  Miiller  and  Weber,  in  accordance  with  his  belief  that 
nirvana  is  nonentity.  The  difference  consists  in  turns  of  expression,  which  are  more  capa- 
ble of  negative  meaning,  yet  without  really  requiring  it.  For  "  immortality  "  he  substitutes 
non-liability  to  death,  as  meaning  escape  from  such  liability  into  nothingness  ;  for  "  place  "  he 
reads  lot  or  state,  as  more  suitable  to  the  metaphorical  intention  of  the  Pali  term.  It  is  not 
very  apparent  how  (v.  22 1)  the  forsaking  of  nipa  and  nama,  "  body  and  soul "  (lit. ,  form  and 
name),  involves  the  "  distinct  denial  of  a  soul,"  in  any  absolute  sense.  Mr.  D'Alwis's  care- 
ful enumeration  of  forty-six  words  descriptive  of  nirvana  is  of  great  value  ;  but  their  literal 
meaning,  even  as  he  gives  it,  fails  to  convince  me  of  the  justice  of  his  conclusion.  Here 
are  some  of  them :  "To  shine;"  "  island,  whence  lot  or  state,  of  safety;"  "destruction 
of  desire  ;"  "  freedom  from  annoy ;  "  "  the  dreadless  [state] ;  "  "the  endless;"  "protec- 
tion ;  "  "  sleep  ;  "  "  the  path  ;  "  "  the  other  shore."  To  some  a  negative  sense  is  ascribed 
by  what  seems  to  be  a  materialistic  assumption.    Thus  "  the  formless  "  is  further  denned  as 


NIRVANA.  623 

Dhammapada  is  full  of  exhortations  to  detachment 
from  perishable  things,  and  to  the  taming  of  passions 
and  selfish  desires,  as  well  as  to  practical  goodness, 
in  order  to  attain  its  joy  and  peace  and  liberty. 

It  is  observable  that  nirvana  is  always  coupled  with 
the  active  experiences  of  virtues,  and  powers  Relations  of 
over  sense.  the  word. 

"  He  who  has  entered  the  void  (or,  who  knows  the  uncreated), 
and  has  renounced  all  desires." 

"  He  who  has  attained  the  end,  and  who  is  fearless,  having  de- 
molished the  thorns  of  existence." 1 

To  similar  effect  is  a  passage  from  the  Vinaya, 
which  D'Alwis  (p.  35)  translates  thus:  — 

"  He  who  has  cut  off  the  roots  has  made  himself  nonentity,  and 
has  acquired  the  nature  of  freedom  from  regeneration." 

The  same  critic  quotes  this  passage  also  as  proving 
nirvdna  to  be  pure  negation  :  — 

"In  nirvana,  of  which  the  mind  alone  can  form  a  conception, 
which  the  eye  cannot  see,  which  is  endless  and  every  way  glorious, 
there  is  neither  earth,  water,  fire,  nor  air,  small  nor  great,  good 
nor  evil ;  and  vijnana  (consciousness)  is  extinguished." 

It  is  obvious  that  extinction  and  negation  are  here 
conceived  in  a  sense  not  inconsistent  with  invisible  spir- 
itual life,  real  enough  to  be  "  endless  and  glorious." 

"  that  which  is  invisible  to  the  senses,  —  a  nonentity  ;"  "not  well  brought  together"  as 
"  non-being ;  "  and  "  the  unseen  "  as  "  that  which  has  no  example  and  no  existence ;  "  a 
synonymy  which  the  authority  of  the  most  capable  scholar  could  not  induce  us  to  accept. 
Nirvana  is  promised  in  this  life  ;  whence  Mr.  D'Alwis  infers  that  there  must  have  been  an 
imperfect  form  of  nirvana.  The  promise  would  seem  at  least  as  competent  to  prove  that 
true  nirvana  was  believed  to  be  consistent  with  life.  The  use  of  phrases  implying  a  posi- 
tive state  he  explains  by  the  necessity  of  metaphorical  language  for  all  definition.  But 
unfortunately  the  metaphors  do  not  even  suggest  nonentity.  Childers  also  {Notes  on 
Dkammap.,  Joicrn.  R.  A.  S-,  1871)  argues  that  there  were  two  forms  of  nirvana,  a  par- 
tial and  a  complete ;  and  that  the  word  is  used  in  both  these  senses :  which  may  be  quite 
true,  yet  does  not  make  it  probable  that  the  complete  form  was  something  diametrically 
contrary,  in  its  very  essence,  to  the  incomplete. 
1  Ibid.,  97,  351. 


624  BUDDHISM. 

We  should  naturally  expect  a  greater  emphasis  on 
other  testi-  the  negative  side,  a  deeper  sense  of  the  perish- 
monies.  ableness  of  forms,  in  the  beginning  of  this 
great  protest  against  them,  than  when  later  familiarity 
with  the  thought  should  bring  in  the  natural  longing 
for  positive  issues  of  life,  and  results  of  moral  en- 
deavor. It  is  therefore  especially  significant  that 
even  in  this  earliest  record  of  Buddhism  we  find  such 
intense  aspiration  after  reality  through  whatsoever 
sacrifice  of  phenomenal  existence.  Later  stages  of 
the  faith  are  believed  to  show  nirvana  still  more  defi- 
nitely as  a  positive  state.  The  "  Lotus  of  the  Good 
Law  "  tells  of  saints  who  have  not  only  entered  it  in 
the  present  life,  but  reappeared  in  after  ages  to  listen 
to  the  preaching  of  its  tidings  ; l  and  the  legends  rep- 
resent the  Buddha  himself  as  rejoicing  at  having 
attained  this  extinction  of  desire,  and  afterwards 
travelling  from  place  to  place,  needing  no  other  food 
than  "  the  fruition  of  nirvana." 2  In  his  youth  he  says  : 
"  When  I  have  reached  supreme  wisdom,  I  will  assem- 
ble all  living  beings,  and  show  them  the  path  of  im- 
mortality ;  withdrawing  them  from  the  ocean  of 
creation,  I  will  establish  them  in  patience,  and  give 
them  the  pure  eye  of  the  law." 3  And  before  his 
death,  he  promises  to  reveal  to  his  followers  his  shin- 
ing form,  after  having  passed  from  them  into  final 
beatitude.4  Even  centuries  afterwards,  he  is  still 
looked  to  as  worker  of  miracles,  and  addressed  as 
beholder  and  guide  of  human  affairs.  St.  Hilaire's 
explanation,  that  there  are  two  forms  of  nirvana,  a 
complete    and   an   incomplete,   does   not   meet   these 

1  Lotus,  ch.  xi.     See  also  the  legend  of  Kasyapa,  Journ-  R.  A.  S.,  XX.  203. 
4  Hardy,  Manual,  pp.  179-182.     Miiller,  Chips,  I.  233.     The  meaning  of  these  refer- 
ences, however,  does  not  seem  to  be  very  clear. 

8  St.  Hilaire,  p.  11.  4  Lotus,  ch.  x. 


NIRVANA.  625 

instances,  where  the  supreme  end  of  sainthood  is 
represented  as  positive  and  active  existence. 

"  In  nirvana"  [with  the  northern  Buddhists] ,  says 
Bastian,  "  is  no  longer  either  birth  or  death  :  only  the 
essence  of  life  remains.  Nirvana  is  nowhere  (in  no 
special  place),  only  because  it  is  all-embracing  and 
all-pervading."  !  "  Far  from  being  annihilation,  as 
such,  it  is  in  fact  annihilation  of  delusion,  and  therefore 
the  real  itself."2  Baur  gives  a  similar  interpretation  : 
"  Nirvana  is  the  purely  immaterial  and  absolute ;  the 
state  to  which  the  soul  attains,  when  it  has  freed 
itself  from  all  relation  to  material  forms."  3 

"  No  one,"  says  Bigandet,  of  the  Burmese,  "openly 
admits  in  practice  that  neibban  and  annihilation  are 
synonymous  terms  :  the  perfected  being  is  believed  to 
retain  his  individuality,  but  is  merged,  as  it  were,  in 
the  abstract  truth,  in  which  he  lives  and  rests  for  ever." 
The  same  writer,  however,  thinks  that  annihilation  is 
plainly  taught  in  the  philosophical  works.4 

Sangermano  gives  an  account  of  the  laws  of 
Gotama,  drawn  up  by  a  Burmese  talapoin  in  1763, 
in  which  nirvana  is  defined  as  "  a  state  exempt  from 
birth,  old  age,  sickness,  and  death.  Nothing  can  give 
an  idea  of  it ;  but  exemption  from  these  and  a  perfect 
security  are  the  things  in  which  it  consists."  5 

"The  Siamese,"  says  Alabaster,6  "  always  refer  to 
nirvana  as  to  something  existing.  It  is  a  place  of 
comfort,  where  there  is  no  care."  "  Lovely  is  the 
glorious  realm  of  nirvana,  the  jewelled  realm  of 
happiness."     But  the  ordinary  Siamese  do  not  trouble 


1  Reisen  in  China,  p.  490.     He  mentions  also  works  which  specify  two  kinds  of  nirvana. 

2  Die  IVeltauffassung  der  Buddhisten  (Berlin,  1870),  p.  22. 

3  Die  ChristlicJte  Gnosis,  p.  5S.  *  Bigandet,  p.  321. 

5  Descript.  of  the  Burnt-  Emp.,  p.  80.  6  Wheel  of  the  Law,  p-  165 

40 


626  BUDDHISM. 

themselves  about  it :  they  believe  virtue  will  be  re- 
warded by  going  to  heaven.1 

Chinese  works  describe  this  "  condition  in  which 
is  neither  birth  nor  death."  "Nirvana  is  not  like  the 
pitcher  not  yet  made,  nor  like  the  pitcher's  nothingness 
when  it  is  broken ;  nor  like  the  hair  of  a  tortoise, 
something  imaginary.  It  is  nothingness  defined  as 
absence  of  something  different  from  itself;  of  covet- 
ousness,  aversion,  delusion."2  The  Chinese  Budd- 
hists translate  nirvana  by  a  word  that  means  absolute 
stillness  and  rest.8  The  Thibetans  all  interpret  it  as 
"emancipation."4 

Gotama  is  recorded  in  the  Lalitavistara  to  have 
learned  from  a  Brahman  the  way  to  "  the  place  where 
there  are  neither  ideas  nor  the  absence  of  ideas ;  " 
and  the  Brahmanical  descriptions  of  "  deliverance " 
deal  in  similar  negations  of  all  possible  forms  of  cog- 
nition. In  view  of  all  this,  it  is  but  reasonable  to 
believe  that  we  have,  as  the  ideal  of  this  Buddhist 
extinction,  more  or  less  clearly  conceived,  a  complete 
absorption  into  freedom,  from  which  all  definite  form 
was  excluded  more  rigidly  than  in  the  Brahmanical, 
as  possibility  of  bondage  to  death ;  a  state  of  abso- 
lute security  from  renewal  of  a  life  subject  to  fatal 
changes  ;  an  escape  from  the  limitations  of  conscious- 
ness and  the  illusions  of  separate  existence  into  that 
ineffable  life  in  the  eternal,  which  to  mystic  faith  in  all 
ao-es  waits  beyond  such  death.5  It  is  certain  that  "  ex- 
tinction" and  "absorption"  were  left  equally  undefined 
in  Hindu  faith,  and  the  distinction  between  them  may 
have  consisted  in  an  intenser  sense  of  the  facts  of 


1  Wheel  of  the  Law,  xxxviii.  -  Beal,  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scriptures,  p.  174. 

s  Neumann,  Catechism  of  the  Shamans,  p.  40.  4  Buraouf,  p.  19. 

5  Franck,  Etudes  Orientates,  p.  43. 


NIRVANA.  627 

sorrow,  pain,  and  death  on  the  part  of  the  Buddhists 
than  of  the  Brahmans ;  prompting  them  to  stronger 
emphasis  on  the  negative  aspect  of  deliverance  from 
these  woes,  on  the  hope  that  these  should  be  no  wore, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  more  earnest  philanthropy 
in  proclaiming  the  deliverance  to  mankind. 

What  nirvana,  his  divine  relief,  was,  Gotama  himself 
does  not  seem  to  have  attempted  to  explain.1  How 
was  it  possible,  save  in  the  general  way  of  absolute 
trust  in  its  all-sufficiency,  as  shown  in  the  sentences 
of  the  Dhammapada?  And  all  the  negations  of  his 
speculative  followers  do  but  serve  to  point  us  back  to 
some  deeper  sense  of  infinite  reality  which  no  forms 
could  satisfy  and  no  terms  define.  It  is  but  the  old 
inevitable  cry  of  renunciation,  and  its  answering 
prophecy  and  release. 

"  Stop  the  stream  valiantly,  drive  away  the  desires,  O  Brahmana  ! 
When  you  have  understood  the  destruction  of  all  that  was  made, 
you  will  understand  that  which  was  not  made."  2 

The  steps  by  which,  in  later  developments  of  the 
contemplative  life,  nirvana  was  to  be  attained,  Testimony 
indicate  that  these  negations  were  very  far  °nas>ie 
from  being  conceived  in  an  absolute  sense.  In  his 
spiritual  progress,  the  ascetic  passes  through  the  four 
dhydnas,  or  "  powers  of  abstraction,"  which  correspond 
with  the  gnosis  of  the  Greeks,  and  may  be  defined 
somewhat  as  follows  :  (1)  satisfaction  in  processes  of 
reasoning;  (2)  withdrawal  from  these  into  the  peace 
and  joy  of  contemplation  ;  (3)  gradual  release  from  def- 
inite forms  of  self-consciousness  and  from  limitations  of 
memory,  through  indifference  to  them,  into  the  infinite 
illuminating  power  of  the  faculties,  still  accompanied 

1  St.  Hilaire,  p.  132.  2  Dliatnmapada^  v.  383. 


628  BUDDHISM. 

by  enjoyment  of  the  soul's  relations  to  the  senses; 
(4)  perfect  fulfilment  of  these  energies,  with  escape 
from  all  dependence  on  the  senses.  —  So  far,  we  have 
steps  in  the  "  world  of  forms."  After  these  follow  the 
"  formless  worlds,"  through  which  the  ecstatic  con- 
templation of  the  saint  leads  him  upward,  in  succes- 
sion:  (1)  The  infinity  of  space;  (2)  of  intelligence; 
(3)  non-existence ;  (4)  non-existence  of  ideas,  and 
the  nothingness  even  of  that  fact;  (5)  the  hindrance; 
(6)  "  nirvana."  1  Impossible  as  it  is  to  follow  Orien- 
tal reverie  through  these  regions  of  its  flight,  it  is  yet 
certain  that  the  saint  passes  through  M  nonentity  "  again 
and  again,  yet  is  in  a  state  of  contemplation  still. 
What  can  the  "  extinction "  be  to  which  such  "  non- 
existence "  can  lead?  The  shadowy  word-play  can 
prove  only  that  entity  and  nonentity  had  no  such 
strictness  of  meaning  in  this  contemplative  devotion 
as  they  have  in  the  analytic  mind  of  the  West. 
The  endless  repetitions  and  recurrences  of  numbers 
in  Buddhist  mythology  are  not  to  be  taken  in 

Meaning  of  J  "J  , 

these  stages  a  literal  sense :  they  indicate  simply  the  per- 
of  devotlon-  petual  monotone  by  which  the  dreamer's  imagi- 
nation is  limited,  and  to  which  it  perpetually  returns. 
So  these  successive  stages  in  the  path  of  liberation, 
ever  returning  to  some  new  formula  of  the  same 
constant  idea  of  "  nonentity,"  and  again  and  again 
attempting  closer  approximation  to  the  statement  of  it, 
can  hardly  be  supposed  to  indicate  real  processes  of 
transition,  a  definite  order  and  series  of  experiences. 
They  seem  to  mean  that  the  dreamer's  soul  was  for 
ever  haunted  by  boundless  discontent  with  all  defi- 
nite forms  under  which    life  could  present  itself  to 

1  For  these  stages,  see  account  given  in  Koeppen,  I.  587-592.     Burnouf 's  Lotus,  814, 
543,  S24.     St.  Hilaire  (p.  158)  omits  the  fifth  stage. 


NIRVANA.  629 

minds  without  practical  knowledge  of  the  laws  of 
nature,  in  their  dealing  with  hereditary  belief  in  end- 
less transmigration  and  "  bonds  of  action."  They 
mean  the  inevitable,  ever-recurring  aspiration  for 
release  from  this  sad  cadence  which  marred  every 
utterance  of  the  past,  present,  or  future.  In  everyone 
of  these  stages,  in  the  last  as  well  as  the  first,  in  the 
innermost  ultimate  forms  to  which  the  "  nothingness  "  of 
ideas  and  of  worlds  could  be  traced,  there  still  remained 
the  soul  itself:  contemplation  was  still  the  fact  of 
facts ;  and  "  deliverance "  was  a  living  hope  till  it 
became  a  full  fruition. 

But  we  have  other  evidence  to   the   same    effect. 
The   nearly  perfect  saint,   on   reaching  "  the  „ 

J     r  _  Y  Return  from 

hindrance,"  may  be  impelled  by  his  own  the  verge  of 
nobler  desires  —  then  more  than  ever  active 
and  inspired,  as  it  would  seem,  with  the  love  of  life's 
uses  and  opportunities — to  return  into  new  paths  of 
discipline ;  and  this  after  passing  through  so  many 
forms  of  "  nonentity  "  !  Beyond  him  are  other  classes 
of  saints,  some  of  whom  have  delivered  themselves 
from  the  "  bonds  of  existence,"  and  others  have 
freed  multitudes  of  their  fellow-men.  Yet  whoever 
has  reached  the  brink  of  fruition  can,  if  he  will, 
forego  it  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  and  pass  again 
through  the  sorrowful  bondage  with  his  brethren,  to 
share  with  them  the  sure  release.  Now  these  Bod- 
hisattvas  (essential  saints),  thus  able,  at  their  own 
will,  did  they  but  choose  to  exert  it,  to  pass  into  ex- 
tinction at  a  step,  after  all  these  stages  of  approximate 
"nonentity,"  are  found  possessed  of  what  qualities? 
"  Morality,  contemplation,  wisdom,  patience,  com- 
passion, energy!"1     If  this  is  an  approach  to"ex- 

1  Koeppen,  I.  424.     These  are  the  "  paramitas,"  or  six  "transcendent  virtues." 


63O  BUDDHISM. 

tinction,"  it  is  manifest  that  the  word  must  take  quite 
other  than  its  current  meaning  in  our  modern  speech. 
Does  it  not  refer  us  rather,  once  more,  to  the  "  beati- 
tude "  of  the  old  Christian  mystics,  who  loved  to  say, 
"  In  nothingness  is  all "  ? 

The  intense,  unqualified  language  of  contemplative 
intelligence  piety,  which  knows  no  shades  of  degree  or 
of  thearhat.  kind,  describes  the  arhat  (advanced  saint)  as 
one  "  whose  virtues  have  lifted  him  above  all  the 
worlds ;  "  as  "  looking  over,  at  death,  into  nirvana, 
free  from  all  attachment ;  regarding  gold  and  dust  as 
alike ;  knowing  no  difference  of  great  and  small ; 
turned  away  from  existence,  from  honor,  pleasure, 
gain,  yet  worshipped  and  blessed  by  all  divine 
beings."1  How  does  he  indicate  that  the  "lamp  of 
existence  and  intelligence "  is  about  to  be  "  extin- 
guished," after  all  these  preparatory  steps  to  that  end? 
By  the  ebbing  away  of  the  last  waves  of  dying 
mind?  The  very  opposite.  He  is  "  acquainted  with 
all  science,  and  possessed  of  perfect  insight."  Here 
are  his  gifts.  The  science  of  transformations,  or 
occult  powers  ;  the  divine  eye,  beholding  all  beings 
and  worlds  at  a  glance ;  the  divine  ear,  hearing  all 
sounds  in  all  worlds ;  knowledge  of  the  thoughts  of 
all  creatures ;  remembrance  of  all  earlier  forms  of 
existence ;  foresight  of  all  future  births.2  And  these 
powers  are  acquired  by  the  combination  of  "  indiffer- 
ence with  intense  attention  !  "  3  All  this  may  be  a 
child's  dream  of  omnipotence,  or  a  glimpse  of  man's 
infinite  relations,  or  a  hyperbole  of  man-worship 
which  only  Oriental  habits  of  thought  can  explain. 
But  it  cannot  be  believed  that  a  path  which  culminated 
in  this  could  have  been  believed  to  lead  on,  with  one 

1  Hardy,  Manual,  p.  38 ;  Koeppen,  I.  406.  2  Ibid.  3  Lotus,  819. 


NIRVANA. 


631 


step   more,   into   the   nirvana    of  Burnouf  and   St. 
Hi  I  a  ire. 

In  fine,  I  must  say  that  Bunsen  seems  to  me  to  come 
much  nearer  the  satisfactory  solution  of  the  Theinex. 
ideal  goal  of  Buddhist  faith,  when  he  calls  nir-  possible 
vana  "inward  peace"  and  even  maintains  that  no 
thought  can  be  farther  from  it  than  that  of  annihilation 
of  being,  as  we  should  understand  this.1  The  author 
of  the  "  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scriptures  "  admits  that 
"the  idea  of  nirvana  as  annihilation  must  be  confined 
to  one  period  in  the  history  of  the  system,  during 
which  scholastic  refinement  sought  to  define  the  con- 
dition of  the  Infinite:'  The  schools  have  certainly 
pursued  the  negation  of  forms,  qualities,  experiences, 
through  every  path  accessible  to  thought ;  a  boundless 
dissatisfaction  with  their  limits,  often  reaching  out 
into  mere  gratification  of  the  logical  faculty  in  this 
direction  by  giving  it  free  play  to  net  the  worlds 
through  and  through  with  its  threads  and  webs  of 
denial.  Yet  no  religious  mythology  has  so  peopled 
them  with  swarming  life,  nor  piled  them  in  such 
endless  series  through  infinite  space.  The  earliest 
nirvana  is  the  "  place  of  the  freed  soul :  "  the  latest  is 
the  "paradise  of  imagination." 

It  is  plain  that  our  language  cannot  convey  to  us 
the  actual  sense  of  the  conception,  as  it  shone  in  the 
Oriental  mind  :  a  divine  antidote,  compensation,  refuge, 
release ;  the  redemption  from  those  oppressive  dreams 
of  human  destiny,  which  more  energetic  and  practical 
races  have  escaped.  This,  however,  is  to  me  quite 
certain.  The  beatific  crowning  vision,  which  lay 
spread  before  the  Buddhist  like  a  waveless  sea,  was 

1  God  in  History,  p.  348  A  very  appreciative  view  of  Buddhism  is  also  given  in 
Alger's  Hist.  0/  the  Doct.  of  Fut.  Life  (Part  II.  ch.  vi.). 


632  BUDDHISM. 

positive,  not  negative.  The  devotee  might  liken  nir- 
vana to  the  "blowing  out  of  a  lamp,"  or  insist  on  its 
vacuity  and  its  pure  nullity  ever  so  strongly.  His 
very  delight  in  the  process  of  freeing  himself  from 
recognizing  the  reality  of  conceptions  which  imposed 
the  "  bonds  of  action  and  transmigration  "  was  itself  a 
reality,  and  refilled  every  vacuum  which  he  created  by 
that  process  in  the  very  instant  of  its  creation.  It  is 
but  a  little  way  that  metaphysical  terms  can  go  towards 
fathoming  the  experience  or  stating  the  necessities  of 
the  spirit.  Not  "  extinction,"  not  even  a  dreamless 
"  rest,"  can  define  a  highest  good,  that  had  only  to  be 
presented  to  millions  to  be  hailed  and  accepted.  For- 
ever true  is  it  that  men  do  not  spend  their  lives  in 
preaching,  laboring,  proselyting,  in  love  and  sacrifice, 
—  in  behalf  of  what  has  no  positive  substantial  being 
for  them  to  lay  hold  on.  Despair  of  existence  and 
longing  for  torpidity  cannot  inspire  them  with  the  love 
of  uses  and  the  ardor  to  help  and  deliver  mankind. 
That  for  which  they  invent  a  name,  to  be  glorified, 
even  as  it  is  elsewhere  a  praise  to  glorify  the  name  of 
God,  must  not  be  thought  "the  horrible  faith  that  wor- 
ships nonentity." 1  Let  us  do  better  justice  to  a  spir- 
itual phase,  which  modern  habits  of  thought  are  but 
too  likely  to  misjudge. 

But  why  this  discontent  with  the  conditions  of  exist- 
Outward  ence,  this  rejection  of  all  its  relations,  this 
Buddhist*  insistence  on  misery  as  universal?  It  is  easy 
negation,  to  see  what  made  the  Hindu  conception  of  life 
a  burden.     Transmigration,  that  endless  monotone  ; 

1  St.  Hilaire,  BuddJia  et  sa  Relig.,  p.  140.  It  must  appear  singular,  on  this  hypothesis, 
that  such  elaborate  compends  as  the  Pratimoksha  (Ritual  of  Chinese  BuddJiists, 
R.  A.  S.,  vol.  xix.)  should  not  have  one  word  expressive  of  the  blessings  of  being 
annihilated. 


NIRVANA.  633 

transmission  of  moral  consequence  through  an  inter- 
minable future,  not  lighted  by  the  hopes  that  social 
progress  inspires ;  caste  and  superstition,  overshadow- 
ing all  thought,  motive,  and  labor,  dominating  this 
life  and  the  future ;  the  barbarities  of  law  and  of  sac- 
rifice, cheapening  the  estimate  of  life  ;  absence  of 
personal  liberty  and  social  opportunity ;  no  scientific 
comprehension  of  those  benignities  of  natural  law, 
which  alleviate  the  common  lot  of  disease,  decay,  and 
death ;  depressing  languors  of  a  tropical  climate ;  its 
incidents  of  cheap  food  and  rapidly  multiplying  popu- 
lation, and  the  results  in  enormous  rents  and  interest 
rates,  and  the  lowest  possible  wages  ;  crises  of  famine  ; 
extremes  of  social  condition ;  the  accumulated  social 
oppression  and  misery  that  weighed  upon  the  life  of 
India  for  centuries,  — these  surely  were  adequate  out- 
ward motive  for  the  mighty  protest  of  Buddhism  against 
the  conditions  of  human  existence.  It  was  the  in- 
stinctive reaction  of  the  soul  against  these  issues  of 
ignorance,  inactivity,  and  wrong ;  its  unconscious  cry 
for  science ;  its  appeal  to  the  ideal,  the  infinite,  the 
inconceivable  even,  for  the  liberty  denied  it  in  every 
attainable  form  of  actual  life.  It  was,  further,  the 
nemesis  of  an  inveterate  contempt  for  things  visible 
and  concrete ;  the  old  Brahmanical  notion  of  their 
unreality  brought  to  its  ultimate  terms  ;  driving  man's 
ideals  of  contemplation  from  a  world  they  had  no 
power  nor  will  to  use  ;  pronouncing  a  world  on  these 
conditions  to  be,  as  a  form  of  cognition,  thoroughly 
null  and  void ;  yet  only  to  reinstate  it  in  a  new  form  ; 
to  justify  it  on  another  plane ;  to  make  it  real  as  a 
field  of  uses,  through  the  power  of  humane  sentiment 
and  the  might  of  moral  purpose.     The  unity  of  all 


634  BUDDHISM. 

being,  which  had  before  meant  the  common  insignifi- 
cance of  each  and  all,  now  meant  the  one  appeal  that 
came  to  every  heart  from  a  universal  sorrow  and 
need.  What  contemplation  had  to  surrender,  pity 
saved. 

This  reaction  from  overwhelming  social  misery  to 
a  spirit  of  humanity,  to  pity,  forgiveness,  and 
moral  consecration,  has  a  counterpart  six 
centuries  afterwards  in  the  birth  of  Christianity,  and 
its  call  to  brotherhood  amidst  the  political  and  spiritual 
miseries  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Other  points  of  rela- 
tion are  no  ress  impressive.  Both  religions  had  their 
rejection  of  "this  world,"  turning  from  hopeless  con- 
ditions (as  they  seemed)  to  an  invisible  ideal  refuge, 
"  the  other  shore."  In  Christianity  the  call  to  forsake 
all  and  follow  the  Master  grew  into  an  asceticism  as 
thorough  as  the  Buddhist.  As  a  goal  of  human 
destiny,  nirvana  in  its  utmost  supposed  negation  is 
not  the  saddest  conceivable.  Annihilation  is  a  bless- 
ing compared  with  everlasting  penalties  and  pains ; 
and  the  "  atheism  "  of  Buddhism,  were  it  as  abso- 
lute as  it  has  been  supposed,  would  be  piety  com- 
pared with  the  worship  of  a  God  who  could  inflict 
them. 

As  refuge  from  the  vanities  and  miseries  that  in 
all  ages  have  turned  so  much  of  human  life  into 
weariness  and  utter  failure,  whirling  it  away  like 
chaff,  all  great  religions  have  pointed  to  some  form 
of  spiritual  rest.  Nor  can  I  think  the  nirvana  of 
the  compassionate  Buddha  all  unrelated  to  that  in- 
ward calm,  that  divine  release,  which  the  voice  of  a 
noble  woman  has  made  so  real  and  so  genial  for 
all  of  us  :  — 


NIRVANA.  635 

"  O  earth  so  full  of  dreary  noises, 
O  men  with  wailing  in  your  voices, 
O  delved  gold  the  wailers  heap, 
O  strife,  O  curse  that  o'er  it  fall !  — 
God  makes  a  silence  through  you  all : 
He  giveth  his  beloved  sleep." 

Pourna,  the  son  of  a  freedman,  become  a  disciple 
of  Buddha,  determines  to  convert  a  wild  tribe  The affirma. 
to  the  law  of  peace  and  love.  Buddha,  having tion- 
suggested  to  him  the  perils  in  this  enterprise,  and 
finding  him  prepared  to  meet  them  in  the  spirit  of 
absolute  self-sacrifice,  dismisses  him  with  these  words  : 
"It  is  well,  Pourna,  thou  art  worthy  of  this  work. 
Go  then ;  having  delivered  thyself,  deliver  others ; 
having  reached  the  other  shore,  bring  others  thither; 
arrived  at  complete  nirvana,  cause  others  to  arrive 
there  like  thyself.'''' 1 

No  dreamless  sleep  in  this  ideal  of  duty ;  but  per- 
petual return  from  the  brink  of  fruition  to  the  sacrifice 
and  service,  whereof  none  can  see  the  completion ; 
constant  obedience  to  the  impulse  to  teach  and  share 
and  save,  through  worlds  on  worlds.  Wearisome  it 
may  be  to  think,  even,  of  this  eternal  sense  of  tasks 
unaccomplished,  of  this  endless  didactic  function,  this 
unremitting  manipulation  of  the  moral  element  in  all 
mankind;  but  it  is  at  least  vital  and  positive,  and  fills 
immortality  with  meaning  and  demand.  It  gives,  I 
think,  adequate  answer,  in  its  very  definition,  to  the 
judgment  of  Miiller,  that  nirvdna,  in  Buddha's  mind, 
"  if  not  annihilation,  was  yet  nothing  but  metaphysical 
selfishness ;  a  relapse  into  that  being  which  is  nothing 
but  itself."2 

1  St.  Hilaire,  p.  97.  2  Chips,  &c,  I.  287. 


636  BUDDHISM. 

And  even  the  dhyanas  —  which,  like  the  "gnosis"  of 
certain  Christian  heretical  sects,  claim  to  be  paths  for 
the  liberation  of  the  soul  through  interior  vision  — 
become,  in  the  light  of  this  practical  earnestness  and 
ardor,  enduring  gates,  not  into  "  nonentity,"  but  into 
wisdom  ;  though  it  be  of  the  Oriental,  not  of  the  Saxon 
nor  the  Hebrew  kind. 


III. 

ETHICS     AND     HUMANITIES. 


ETHICS    AND     HUMANITIES. 


WE  pass  from  the  speculative  to  the  practical 
aspect  of  Buddhism. 
"The  Four  Supreme  Truths  are  Pain,  the  Cause 
of  Pain,  the  Extinction  of  Pain,  and  the  Way  The  tragedy 
to  the  Extinction  of  Pain."1  To  "turn  theoffaith- 
wheel  of  these  four  truths  "  is  the  sum  of  virtue  and 
power,  of  the  Buddha's  word  and  work.2 

"  Birth  is  pain ;  sickness,  sorrow,  death,  are  pain ;  union  with 
the  hated,  separation  from  the  loved,  not  to  reach  what  one  desires, 
all  that  makes  perception,  is  pain ;  the  passing  away  of  all  that  is 
born  is  pain." 3 

Pain  the  very  substance  of  life  !  Absolute  renun- 
ciation of  attachment  {iifdddna)  to  forms  of  exist- 
ence, the  only  path  of  release !  Release  itself 
definable  by  no  definite  form  of  human  joy  !  Was 
not  the  salvation  sadder  than  the  doom  from  which 
it  freed?  Had  not  this  Hindu  dream-work  ended 
logically  in  practical  despair?  It  has  seemed  so  to 
most  observation  from  Christian  points  of  view.  But 
let  us  look  further. 

1  Burnouf,  p.  629. 

2  This  phrase  was  probably  used  in  contrast  to  the  "wheel  of  transmigration,"  whose 
endless  revolution  of  births  the  counter-movement  of  the  law  of  Buddha  should  arrest. 
Leon  Feer  in  Journ.  Asiat.  for  1870,  p.  438. 

*  Ibid.  (p.  367),  from  Dhartnasakraxitras.     So  Wuttke,  II.  537. 


64O  BUDDHISM. 

Buddhism  has  well  been  called  the  most  tragical 
of  human  faiths.  It  accepted  the  brooding  sense  of 
change  and  death,  into  which  science  and  social  en- 
ergy had  not  yet  entered,  to  give  foothold  for  ideals 
of  progress.  It  would  not  evade  the  facts.  Is  the 
world  then  nought?  Is  "the  body  like  foam  ;  sense  a 
bubble  ;  consciousness  a  circle  on  a  stream ;  action 
the  shadow  that  falls  on  it ;  knowledge  the  play  of 
illusions"?  Let  us  accept  the  consequences  of  that 
truth,  though  all  the  old  landmarks  of  faith  be  swept 
away,  and  the  gods  above,  with  their  heavens,  turn  to 
mortalities  like  the  rest.  Transmigration  shall  go  to 
the  tests  of  moral  order,  and  end  in  a  truth  deeper 
than  itself.  That  test  at  least  shall  abide,  though  the 
interests  of  personality  disappear,  and  not  a  chink  be 
left  open  for  freedom.  If  there  is  no  smile  in  the  uni- 
verse, let  us  make  the  most  of  the  frown,  nor  fear  but 
good  ending  shall  come  of  that;  nay,  turn  the  frown 
itself  into  a  dream,  and  so  overcome  the  world. 

This  is  tragedy ;  and  it  is  heroism  also,  which  is 
an  essential  part  of  tragedy.  Out  of  an  unfathomable 
loss,  an  absolute  renunciation,  to  win  not  stoical  resig- 
nation only,  but  a  purpose  that  should  fill  life  with 
present  good,  and  so  disprove  the  premise  of  despair ! 

"  Let  us  live  happily  then,  not  hating  those  who  hate  us  :  let  us 
dwell  free  from  hatred  among  men  who  hate." 

"  Let  us  live  happily,  free  from  greed  among  the  greedy." 

"  Let  us  live  happily,  though  we  call  nothing  our  own.  We 
shall  be  like  the  bright  gods,  feeding  on  happiness." 

"  He  who  has  given  up  both  victory  and  defeat,  —  he,  the  con- 
tented, is  happy." 

"  He  who  applies  himself  to  the  doctrine  of  Buddha  brightens 
this  world,  like  the  moon  when  free  from  clouds."  ' 

1     Dhamtnap-i  vv.  197-201,  382. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  64 1 

But  life  meant  more  than  happiness.  It  was  not 
enough  for  the  Buddhist  to  emancipate  himself  from 
pain.  The  universal  doom  of  sorrow  must  touch  his 
heart  with  a  sympathy  as  universal.  He  could  not 
rest  till  he  had  taught  the  whole  world  the  secret  of 
reconciliation  with  destiny.  Suffering,  in  that  early 
day  also,  led  out  into  a  gospel  of  universal  love. 
And  so  the  substance  of  what  seemed  lost — of  per- 
sonality, of  freedom,  of  faith  —  was,  in  one  sense  at 
least,  saved. 

For  the  Buddha  came,  as  all  Buddhas  had  come, 
"to   save  the  human  race"  from  its  miseries;  The  gospel 
and  Buddhahood  itself  lay  open  to  every  one.  of  love- 
Gotama,  it  is  constantly  affirmed,  knew  but  one  human 
nature,  and  all  men  as  brothers. 

"  My  law  is  a  law  of  mercy  for  all."  ' 

"  Proclaim  it  freely  to  all  men  :  it  shall  cleanse  good  and  evil, 
rich  and  poor  alike  ;  it  is  large  as  the  spaces  of  heaven,  that  ex- 
clude none." 8 

"  Whoever  loves  will  feel  the  longing  to  save  not  himself 
alone,  but  all  others.  Let  him  say  to  himself:  When  others  are 
learning  the  truth,  I  will  rejoice  at  it,  as  if  it  were  myself.  When 
others  are  without  it,  I  will  mourn  the  loss  as  my  own.  We  shall 
do  much,  if  we  deliver  many  ;  but  more,  if  we  cause  them  to  deliver 
others,  and  so  on  without  end.  So  shall  the  healing  word  embrace 
the  world,  and  all  who  are  sunk  in  the  ocean  of  misery  be  saved."  3 

All ;  for  the  Buddhist  scriptures  teach  that  even 
in  the  hells  there  are  "  heavens  of  refuge  "  for  souls 
that  are  expiating  their  sins,  in  which  they  are  pre- 
served from  catastrophes  that  befall  the  world  as  a 
whole,  at  the  end  of  a  kalpa-period.  There  is  ever  a 
Brahma  in  the  universe,  even  though  a  Buddha  be  not 
living  in  the  kalpa ;  and  "  he  protects  his  abode."4 

1  P.urnouf,'pp.  198,  205-211.  *  Koeppen,  p.  130,  from  Thibetan  collection. 

3  Tsing-tu-uen  in  Wutt-ke,  II.  563.        *  Mahavaiisa  (Upham),  note  to  ch.  xix. 

4' 


642  BUDDHISM. 

Gotama  compares  himself  to  "  a  father,  who  rescues 
his  children  from  a  burning  house  ;  "  to  "  a  guide  who 
leads  a  caravan  to  fortunate  lands  ;  "  to  "  a  physician 
who  cures  the  blind  with  herbs  brought  from  the  holy 
Himalayas  ;  "  to  "  the  friendly  cloud,  that  brings  rain 
to  thirsty  plants."  * 

It  was  pure  democracy. 2  The  veil  of  the  Hindu 
Religious  temple  was  rent.  Eternal  principles  brought 
democracy.  c]ass  privilege  to  judgment ;  and  the  unity  of 
an  idea  swept  the  field  clear  of  all  exclusive  claims. 
Gotama  took  his  disciples  from  the  lowest,  as  readily 
as  from  the  highest  class.  This  prince  came  down 
from  his  throne,  and  walked  with  poor  and  outcast 
people  ;  joined  the  hands  which  caste  forbade  to  touch 
each  other;  reached  out  his  own  to  the  pariah,  who 
forthwith  arose  out  of  the  dust,  the  equal  of  kings. 
Did  not  Sudra  and  Brahman  stand  under  one  destiny, 
one  law  of  right  and  wrong,  one  reward  and  one 
penalty?  For  all  one  path  of  duty,  —  "to  live  poor 
and  pure." 

"  Look  closely,  and  you  shall  see  no  difference  between  the  body 
of  a  prince  and  the  body  of  a  slave.  What  is  essential  is  that 
which  may  dwell  in  the  most  miserable  frame,  and  which  the  wisest 
have  saluted  and  honored.  The  Brahman  like  the  Chandala  is 
born  of  woman  :  where  see  you  the  difference,  that  one  should  be 
noble  and  the  other  vile  ?  " 3 

Moral  distinctions  effaced  all  others.  All  tests 
merged  in  the  test  of  character :  all  words  found 
honor  or  shame  in  this  ordeal  alone.4 

"  The  talk  of  '  high  and  low  castes,'  of  '  the  pure  Brahmans, 
the  only  sons  of  Brahma,'  is  nothing  but  sound  :  the  four  castes 
are  equal."  5 

1  Lotus  of  the  Good  Law,  ch.  iii.  v.  vii.  2  Lassen,  II.  440. 

8  Burnouf,  p.  209,  376.  l  See  Dhammap.,  ch.  xix. 

8  Sutras,  quoted  in  Hardy's  Manual,  pp.  So,  81. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  643 

"  It  has  been  said  that  it  is  better  to  give  alms  to  a  Brahman 
than  to  a  man  of  mean  birth.  But  Gotama  denies  this,  saying, 
'  As  the  husbandman  sows  in  wet  weather  on  the  hills,  and  in  dry 
weather  in  the  valleys,  and  at  all  times  in  the  ground  that  can  be 
at  all  times  watered,  so  the  man  who  would  be  blessed  in  both 
worlds  will  give  alms  to  all ;  nor  do  birth  and  eminence  make  the 
right  to  be  honored."  1 

"He  is  vasala  [a  low  person],  who  cherishes  hatred,  torments 
living  beings,  steals  or  kills  or  commits  impurity  ;  who  does  not 
pay  his  debts,  maltreats  aged  parents,  or  fails  to  support  them  ; 
who  gives  evil  counsel,  hides  truth,  does  not  return  hospitality  nor 
render  it,  exalts  himself  and  debases  others,  ignores  their  virtues, 
is  impatient  of  their  success.  Not  by  birth,  but  by  conduct,  is  one 
a  vasala." 

"  A  chandala,  by  his  virtues,  was  born  in  a  Brahma  world  ;  but 
the  Brahman  who  is  vicious  is  in  shame  now,  and  suffers  hereafter  ; 
and  his  caste  shall  not  release  him."2 

"  Ananda,  one  of  the  earliest  disciples  [and  a  very  noble  char- 
acter], sitting  once  beside  a  well,  asked  a  drink  of  water  from  a 
Chandala  woman,  who  was  drawing  from  the  well.  She  answered, 
'  How  dost  thou  ask  water  of  me,  an  outcast,  who  may  not  touch 
thee  without  offence  ? '  Ananda  answered  :  '  My  sister,  I  ask  not 
of  thy  caste :  I  ask  thee  water  to  drink.'  And  Buddha  took  her 
among  his  disciples."3 

The  equality  of  the  sexes  in  Buddhism  4  is  ascribed 
to  the  influence  of  Ananda  over  his  master,  who  is 
said  to  have  conceded  to  women  the  right  to  enter 
the  religious  profession  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his 
teaching.5  But  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how,  upon  his 
principles,  he  could  have  opposed  it  in  the  first.  No 
distinction  of  sex  more  than  of  castes  could  have  been 
valid,  for  such  a  gospel.6  The  following  legend  is 
from  the  Singhalese  Sutras  :  — 

1  Hardy,  p.  80. 

2  Sutra,  quoted  by  D'Alwis,  pp.  123-125.  s  Burnouf,  p.  205. 

4  With  the  one  exception  of  the  Buddhaship  itself,  which  is  a  privilege  of  males. 
Christianity,  too,  allows  pure  Christhood  only  to  a  man.     Hardy's  Manual,  p.  104. 
6  Burnouf,  p.  278;  Koeppen,  I.  104. 
*  Franck,  Etudes  Oricntales,  p.  39. 


644  BUDDHISM. 

"  The  wives  of  five  hundred  princes,  whose  husbands  had 
become  disciples,  desired  to  follow  their  example  ;  and  the  mother 
of  Buddha  requested  of  him  their  admission.  It  was  clearly  seen 
by  him  that  former  Buddhas  had  admitted  women  ;  but  he  feared 
it  would  give  occasion  for  speaking  against  his  institutions  [so  his 
disciples  interpreted  him],  and  did  not  at  once  accede  to  the  request. 
Then  Prajapati  (his  mother)  said  to  them  :  '  Children,  Buddha  has 
thrice  refused  to  "  admit  us  to  profession  :  "  let  us  take  it  on  our- 
selves, and  then  go  to  him  ;  and  he  cannot  but  receive  us.'  So 
they  cut  off  their  hair,  put  on  the  proper  robe,  and  taking  earthen 
bowls  journeyed  with  painful  feet  to  Buddha.  And  Ananda,  seeing 
them,  was  filled  with  sorrow,  and  again  brought  their  petition  to 
Buddha,  who  said  :  '  Are  the  Buddhas  born  only  for  the  benefit  of 
men  ?  Have  not  Wisakha,  and  many  others,  entered  the  paths  ? 
The  entrance  is  open  for  women  as  well  as  for  men.' "  ' 

In  the  "  Lotus,"  the  Buddha  appears  on  his  holy 
mountain,  surrounded  by  multitudes  of  deities  and 
disciples ;  and  among  them  are  six  thousand  female 
saints.  In  the  legends  generally,  he  admits  men 
and  women  alike  to  the  bliss  of  nirvana.2  Although, 
in  one  or  two  of  these,  a  female  becomes  a  male  in 
order  to  obtain  sainthood,  such  individual  case  must 
not  be  taken  as  representing  the  Buddhist  idea  of 
equality.3 

There  are  rules  in  the  Sutras  commanding  kindness 
to  servants,  and  even  the  emancipation  of  slaves  after 
they  shall  have  labored  a  given  time.4  The  Maha- 
vansa  describes  a  damsel  of  supernatural  beauty,  who, 
though  born  of  the  lowest  grade  of  outcasts,  was 
loved  and  espoused  by  a  prince,  and  who  had  acquired 
her  charms  by  such  good  works  as  sweeping  and 
cleaning  the  floor  at  the  foot  of  a  banyan,  for  the  sake 
of  worship.5 

1  Hardy's  Manual,  p.  310.  2  Ibid.,  314 ;  Lotus,  ch.  xi. 

3  See  Bastian,  Reisen  in  China,  &c.,  p.  586.     Beal's  Buddhist  Pilgrims,  ch.  xvii. 

4  Hardy,  482.  6  Mahav.,  ch.  xxxiii. 


ETHICS   AND    HUMANITIES.  645 

What  possibility  of  exclusive  distinctions  in  a  creed 
which  affirms  that  the  most  degraded  person  may  one 
day  become  ruler  of  the  highest  heavens  ;  that  the 
loftiest  king  may  sink  below  the  least  of  his  subjects  ; 
and  that  more  than  thirty  saints  have  transmitted  the 
true  doctrine  from  the  time  of  the  Buddha,  belonging 
indifferently  to  all  the  castes? 

Like  other  religious  reformers,  Gotama  appealed  to 
the  poor,  both  from  sympathy  and  tenderness  and  as 
finding  them  more  open  to  his  word. 

"  Hard  it  is  for  a  rich  man  to  know  the  way,  easy  for  a  poor  one." 
"  A  poor  man  filled  his  scrip  with  a  handful  of  flowers  ;  but  the 

rich  poured  in  thousands  of  bushels  in  vain." 

"  Of  all  the  lamps  lighted  in  his  honor,  one  only,  brought  by  a 

poor  woman,  lasted  through  the  night."  ' 

It  would  appear  from  the  study  of  the  earliest 
Buddhist  writings,  that,  while  the  philosophical  teach- 
ings of  the  school  were  delivered,  as  we  should  sup- 
pose them  likely  to  be,  in  the  sacred  language  of  the 
Brahmans,  whenever  specially  addressed  to  them,  — 
the  people  were  taught  the  moral  and  spiritual  sub- 
stance of  the  faith  of  the  reformers  in  their  own 
different  dialects,  and  in  a  thoroughly  popular  style. a 
And  we  may  be  sure  that  this  gospel  had  its  pente- 
costal  gift  of  tongues  for  all  the  waiting  tribes  of 
northern  India.  This  assumption  of  the  people's 
cause,  this  direct  appeal  to  their  mind  and  heart, 
which  constitutes  an  essential  part  of  the  prophet's 
inspiration  in  all  religions,  was  probably  the  main 
element  of  Gotama's  personal  work.  Fifteen  hun- 
dred years  afterwards  Dante  wrote  his  great  poem,  — 

1  Koeppen,  131. 

2  Lassen,  II.  492;  Duncker,  II.  194;  Weber's  Vorlesungen,  25S;  Muir,  Sansk.  Texts, 
II. 


646  BUDDHISM. 

wherein  day  broke  on  the  ecclesiastical  slavery  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  as  it  rose  in  Gotama's  gospel  on  that  of 
the  East, — in  the  people's  own  Italian,  not  in  the 
learned  tongue.  The  preachers  whom  Buddha  sent 
out  to  lay  open  a  long  sealed  life  and  hope  to  the 
people,  and  to  rebuke  the  indolence  and  exclusiveness 
of  the  clergy,  remind  us  of  Wiclif 's  itinerant  "  poor 
priests,"  sent  out  for  a  like  purpose  in  England  when 
two  thousand  years  had  gone  by.  And  this  was  the 
burden  of  their  prophecy  :  — 

"Forsake  all  evil,  bring  forth  good,  master  thy  own  thought: 
such  is  Buddha's  path  to  end  all  pain."  ' 

There  is  an  old  ballad  literature  of  Buddhism,  called 
the  gdthds, — fragments  of  which  appear  through- 
out the  great  Sutras  of  the  faith.  They  are  in  an 
obsolete  language  of  mixed  dialects,  and  are  believed 
to  be  the  production  of  ancient  bards,  probably  suc- 
cessors of  Buddha,  who  went  about  singing  the  new 
gospel  in  these  simple  strains,  which  must  have  come 
from  the  heart  of  the  people  and  gone  straightway  to 
it.  They  are  always  quoted  with  great  respect,  in 
later  writings.2  So  natural  and  so  genial  the  impulse 
of  Buddhism  that  it  flowed  at  once  into  song ;  and  in 
the  earlier  works,  like  the  Lotus  and  the  Lalitavistara, 
the  doctrine  first  stated  in  prose  is  always  repeated  in 
poetic  form. 

It  was  an  impulse  to  convert  the  whole  world  to  a 
universal  philosophy  and  a  faith  that  should  bring  de- 
love.  liverance  from  the  woes  of  life.     The  Lotus 

says  :  "  it  is  much  less  criminal  to  do  injury  to  a  Budd- 
ha for  ages,  than  to  say  an  unkind  word  to  a  simple 

1  Koeppen,  I.  p.  224;  Dhammapada.,  ch.  xiv. 

2  See  Muir,  II.  125. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  647 

teacher  who  is  instructing  any  one  in  the  law." 
There  is  no  parallel  to  this  missionary  zeal,  this  bound- 
less pity  and  love,  but  in  Christianity;  nor  yet  in 
Christianity  in  its  earliest  form  ;  but  only  when  Paul's 
protest  of  ethnic  sympathy  broke  down  the  wall  be- 
tween Jew  and  Gentile,  bond  and  free.  In  Buddha 
was  neither  Chinese  nor  Mongol  nor  Hindu ;  neither 
Brahman  nor  Chandala,  prince  nor  slave.  What 
injustice  we  shall  do  to  this  immense  purpose  which 
swept  over  all  Eastern  Asia,  if  we  imagine  it  was 
only  a  gospel  of  self-annihilation  and  miserable  de- 
spair, after  all,  that  these  apostles  had  to  offer  !  Do  not 
tell  us  that  mere  love  of  self-destruction,  or  despair 
of  life,  will  make  men  take  the  whole  world  into  their 
hearts,  and  forsake  the  meditations  in  which  they  place 
their  own  salvation,  to  share  their  truth  with  all  other 
men.  A  similar  ardor  has  been  held  to  be  sufficient 
evidence  to  prove  that  the  early  Christians  were  sus- 
tained by  a  glorious  hope.  The  Brahmans  charge 
Buddha  with  saying,  "  Let  all  the  sins  ever  committed 
fall  on  me,  that  the  world  may  be  saved."  1 

"  As  a  mother,  so  long  as  she  lives,  watches  over  her  child,  her 
only  child,  so  among  all  beings  let  boundless  good-will  prevail.  If 
a  man  be  of  this  mind,  as  long  as  he  is  awake,  whether  standing  or 
walking,  or  sitting  or  lying,  there  comes  to  pass  the  saying  :  '  This 
place  is  the  abode  of  holiness.'  " 2 

The  four  virtuous  inclinations,  according  to  the 
Siamese  Buddhists,  are:  (i)  seeking  for  others  the 
happiness  one  desires  for  himself;  (2)  compassionate 
interest  in  all  creatures;  (3)  love  for,  and  pleasure 
in,  all  beings  ;   (4)  impartiality.3 

1  Kumarila,  quoted  by  Miiller,  51.  Lit.,  p.  80. 
*  Kuddakapattia,  in  jfourn.  R.  A.  S-  (1868). 
3  Alabaster's  W  lieel  of  tlie  Law,  p.  198. 


648  BUDDHISM. 

Buddhism  and  Christianity  originated  in  ages  of 
despondency,  when  men,  having  few  recognized  civil 
and  political  interests,  turned  naturally  to  personal 
sympathy  with  each  other,  and  the  desire  of  render- 
ing moral  and  spiritual  help.  In  both  cases,  such 
circumstances  tended  to  produce  contempt  for  the 
outward  world,  and  a  certain  subjection  to  the  darker 
side  of  life ;  an  eye  for  destructive,  or  saddening 
destinies ;  for  the  one  religion,  centering  in  a  sense  of 
transiency  in  every  form  of  being;  for  the  other,  in 
a  sense  of  moral  evil,  of  "sin"  at  the  root  of  every 
soul.  The  history  of  these  two  great  gospels  of  love 
has,  of  course,  revealed  the  effect  of  such  excessive 
forms  of  discouragement,  on  the  quality  of  spiritual 
methods  and  promises  of  deliverance. 

That  the  Buddhists  preached  sad  tidings  instead 
of  glad  ones,  universal  pain  and  utter  self-abnegation, 
must  not  cover  the  fact  that  they  preached  liberty  and 
humanity :  we  must,  on  the  contrary,  derive  from  this 
latter  fact  some  happier  interpretation  of  what  seems 
enfeebling  and  even  heart-crushing  in  their  theory 
of  life. 

If  this  belief  was  indeed  so  hopeless,  then  it  is  only 
the  more  creditable  to  human  nature  that  the  sympa- 
thies should  not  have  been  paralyzed  by  it,  but  softened 
and  expanded  with  tenderest  pity.  Let  Christendom 
ask  itself  what  would  be  likely  to  become  of  those  af- 
fections which  it  claims  to  have  unfolded  and  set  free, 
but  which  its  religious  education  makes  so  largely 
dependent  on  faith  in  a  future  heaven,  if  its  confessors 
should  be  compelled  to  accept  what  they  hold  to  be  the 
nirvana  of  Buddhist  hope  in  place  of  these  agreeable 
expectations.  Yet  nirvana  has  given  to  millions  of 
those  heathen  souls  a  peace  which  "  heaven "  fails  to 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  649 

supply  for  millions  of  these  Christian  ones.  The  less 
it  promises  of  happiness,  the  more  it  throws  love  back 
on  its  own  nobility  for  support.  If  "cold  speculation," 
"lifeless  negation,"  "atheism,"  "nihilism,"  can  stir 
such  vital  warmth  as  Buddhism  can  show,  is  it  not  a 
stronger  evidence  of  the  upward  pressure  of  the  soul, 
than  for  faith  in  a  personal  Father,  who  watches  over 
all  his  children,  to  stir  much  more?  "  I  do  not  hesi- 
tate," says  Burnouf,  "to  translate  the  Buddhist  mditri 
by  the  term  '  universal  love.' " J 

Yes  :  we  will  call  it  tragedy,  and  of  no  mean  sort. 
I  know  of  nothing  in  the   history  of  religion 

0  J  °  Inspires  re- 

more  pathetic ;  yet  there  are  few  things  that  spect  for 
should  suggest  such  respect  for  the  soul.  This  theso 
darkness  of  a  dreamer's  thought  of  change  and  death, 
what  a  pall  it  spread  over  life  !  "  Once,"  says  the 
legend,  "Buddha  smiled,  and  the  beam  of  that  smile 
irradiated  the  universe  ;  but  instantly  came  forth  a  voice 
saying,  It  is  vain,  it  cannot  stay."  Religion  indeed 
has  not  been  wont  to  recognize  pleasure  as  compatible 
with  sainthood ;  and  yet  the  smile  is  even  further  from 
the  Buddha  than  from  the  Christ.  But  in  this  shadow 
of  contemplation  what  unquenchable  light  shines  ! 

"Than  Buddha,"  says  even  St.  Hilaire,  who  believes 
it  possible  to  construct  his  biography  histori- 

0       r     J  Testimonies 

cally,  and  has  attempted  to  do  so,  "there  is,  of  oPPo- 
with  the  sole  exception  of  the  Christ,  no  purer  nents' 
nor  more  touching  figure  among  the  founders  of  re- 
ligions. His  life  is  without  blemish  :  he  is  the  finished 
model  of  the  heroism,  the  self-renunciation,  the  love, 
the  sweetness  he  commands."2  Abel  Remusat  grants 
that  to  call  Buddhism  the  Christianity  of  the  East  is  to 
give,  on  the  whole,  a  good  idea  of  the  importance  of 

1  Lotus,  p.  300.  2  Le  Bouddha,  lutrod.,  p.  v. 


65O  BUDDHISM. 

the  services  rendered  by  this  form  of  religion  to  man- 
kind.1 Cunningham,  who  loosely  styles  it  "an  im- 
posture," yet  defines  it  as  "an  enthusiasm  and  a 
benevolence "  [strange  qualities  for  imposture]  ;  and 
describes  its  "peaceful  progress,  illuminated  by  the 
cheerful  faces  of  the  sick,  the  crippled,  and  the  poor, 
in  monastic  hospitals,  and  by  the  smiles  of  travellers 
reposing  in  Dharmasalas  by  the  waysides."2  "The 
Buddhists,"  says  Wuttke,  "are  the  only  heathen  peo- 
ple who  have  conceived  of  peacefully  converting  all 
mankind  to  one  belief:  theirs  alone  in  heathen  history 
is  a  religion,  not  of  one  people,  but  of  humanity."3 
"The  only  heathen  people  ; "  yet,  as  he  allows,  appar- 
ently without  noticing  what  the  fact  involves,  a  people 
far  outnumbering  any  other  body  of  heathen  ;  and, 
he  might  have  added,  rivalling  Christianity  in  the 
count  of  its  disciples  and  its  sects. 

This  love  of  all  beings,  which  Buddhism,  like 
its  active  Christianity,  declares  to  be  the  sum  of  its  mo- 
ekments.  tives,  is  not  the  mere  dreamy  passive  sentiment 
its  aim  at  detachment  from  the  world  and  life  would, 
for  our  modes  of  thought,  imply.  It  has  been  said 
to  "reach  beyond  Christianity,"  at  least  theoretically, 
"since  it  embraces  not  men  only,  but  all  the  creat- 
ures."4 Its  earliest  commands,  the  first  lesson  to  the 
convert,  were  indeed  prohibitions  only :  not  to  kill, 
nor  steal,  nor  commit  unchaste  actions,  nor  lie,  nor  be 
drunken.  But  these  were  initiatory  to  more  positive 
duty.  Its  six  cardinal  virtues  (paramitas)  are  com- 
passion, morality,  patience,  energy,  contemplation, 
wisdom.6  And  its  moral  disciplines  were  as  positive 
as  possible. 

1  Melanges  Posthumes,  p.  237.  2  Bhilsa  Topes,  p.  54- 

a  Geschichte  d.  Heidenthums,  II.  563-  *  Koeppen,  I.  313-  B  Ibid.,  450. 


ETHICS   AND    HUMANITIES.  65 1 

"  Never  is  wrath  stilled  by  wrath,  only  by  reconciliation :  this  is 
an  everlasting  law." 

"  Overcome  evil  with  good,  the  avaricious  with  generosity,  the 
false  with  truth." 

"  Thoughtful   heed   is    the  way  of  immortality :    indolence   of 
death." 

"  Attack  vigorously  what  is  to  be  done  :   a  careless  pilgrim  only 
scatters  the  dust  of  his  passions  more  widely." 

"  As  the  plant  sheds  its  withered  flowers,  so  men  should  shed 
passions  and  hates." 

"  One  day  of  endeavor  is  better  than  a  hundred  years  of  sloth." 
"  Thy  self  is  its  own  defence,  its  own  refuge ;  it  atones  for  its 
own  sins  ;  none  can  purify  another." 

"  Watch  thyself  with  all  diligence,  and  hold  thyself  in  as  the 
spirited  steed  is  held  by  its  owner." 

"  Well-makers  lead  the  water  ;  fletchers  bend  the  arrow  ;  carpen- 
ters break  the  wood  ;  and  the  wise  fashion  themselves." 

"Master  thyself:  so  mayest  thou  teach  others,  and  easily  tame 
them,  after  having  tamed  thyself;  for  self  is  hardest  to  tame." 

"  Never  forget  thy  own  duty  for  the  sake  of  another's,  however 
great." 

"  Give,  if  thou  art  asked,  from  the  little  thou  hast,  and  thou  shalt 
go  near  the  gods." 

"  Haste  to  do  good  :  the  slothful  in  virtue  learns  to  love  evil." 
"  Rouse  thyself:  be  not  idle.     Follow  the  law  of  virtue." 
"  Think  not  lightly  of  evil  ;  drop  by  drop  the  jar  is  filled  :  think 
not  lightly  of  good ;  the  wise  is  filled  with  purity,  gathering  it  drop 
by  drop."  * 

These  are  sentences  from  one  of  the  oldest  of 
the  sacred  books  of  Buddhism,  the  Dhamma-The  Dham. 
pada.  Its  earnest  dealing  with  life  and  duty  maPada- 
may  be  noted  in  the  titles  of  some  of  its  chapters : 
"Reflection;"  "the  Fool;"  "the  Wise;"  "Evil;" 
"Punishment;"  "Old  Age;"  "Self;"  "The  World;" 
"the  Awakened;"  "Pleasure;"  "Anger;"  "Impu- 
rity;"   "the    Downward    Course;"    "Thirst;"    "the 

1  Dhammapada,  vv.  5,  223,  21,  313.  112,  377,  165,  379-380,  145,  157-159,  166,  224,  116, 
16S,  121. 


652  BUDDHISM. 

Way."  It  rouses  the  moral  sense  to  note  the  essential 
qualities  and  consequences  of  conduct.  It  tells  those 
who  are  inclined  to  detraction  that,  "  while  they  look 
after  the  faults  of  others,  their  own  are  growing  ;  "  that 
"body,  tongue,  and  mind  must  be  controlled."  It  tells 
the  slayer,  the  liar,  the  drunkard,  the  thief,  the  man 
who  covets  his  neighbor's  wife,  that  they  "pull  up 
their  own  life  by  the  root."  It  reminds  the  thoughtless 
that  "his  sin  will  come  back  upon  him,  like  fine  dust 
thrown  against  the  wind ;  that  the  universe  has  no 
place  where  it  will  not  find  him  out."  It  warns  the 
self-indulgent  that  "what  is  good  and  wholesome  for 
the  life  is  hard  to  win  ; "  that  "  the  body  and  the  royal 
chariot  alike  decay,  but  the  virtue  of  the  righteous, 
which  makes  us  to  know  what  is  good,  never  grows 
old." 

"  Mean  is  the  scent  of  sandal-wood :  best  to  the  gods  is  the 
fragrance  that  rises  from  the  good."  ' 

This  "  way  of  release  "  is  indeed  in  detachment  of 
the  soul  from  all  finite  relations.  The  burden  of  its 
teaching  is  :  —  whoso  loveth  father  or  mother  more 
than  me,  and  leaveth  not  all  desires  to  follow  me,  is 
not  worthy  of  me.  In  its  repulsion  of  the  pleasures 
of  sense,  it  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "Love  nothing,  if 
thou  wouldst  be  free  from  bonds."2  Yet  it  can  speak 
tenderly  of  human  relations  when  it  would  enforce  the 
immortality  of  virtue. 

"  As  friends  and  kindred  hail  the  long  absent  at  his  return  in 
health,  so  when  the  just  man  goes  from  this  world  to  another,  his 
good  deeds  receive  him,  as  friend  greets  friend." 3 

1  Dliammapada,  253,  246-7,  125-7,  l63.  151,  56- 

2  Ibid.,  211.  s  Ibid.,  219,  220. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  653 

Nor   in   the    humanities   which   it    inculcates    does 
Buddhism  fail  to  recognize  either  the  full  de-  Buddhist 
mands  of  all  human  ties,  whether  of  kindred-  humanities- 
ship  or  sympathy,  or  the  delight  that  comes  with  their 
service. 

"  As  the  bee,  without  destroying  the  color  or  perfume  of  the 
flower,  gathers  the  sweetness  with  his  mouth  and  wings,  so  the 
riches  of  the  true  friend  gradually  accumulate;  and  the  increase  is 
constant,  like  the  growth  of  the  hillock  which  the  white  ant  steadily 
builds." 

"  The  wise  man  searches  for  the  friend  thus  gifted,  as  the  child 
seeks  its  mother." ' 

The  domestic  virtues  are  far  from  being  disparaged 
in  Buddhist  writings,  or  in  the  practice  of  The  domes. 
Buddhist  communities.  On  the  contrary,  they  tic  virtues- 
are  strictly  enjoined  and  enforced.  Notwithstanding 
the  sanctity  of  celibacy  in  his  law,  the  great  impor- 
tance believed  to  have  been  ascribed  by  Gotama  to 
filial  sentiment,  and  indeed  to  every  domestic  duty, 
has  been  of  great  service  in  maintaining  the  moral 
inviolability  of  the  family.  He  refused  to  receive  into 
the  ministry  those  who  had  not  the  consent  of  their 
parents.2  The  legends  record  his  tenderness  to  his 
mother's  memory ;  and  his  visit  to  the  heaven  where 
she  dwelt,  to  teach  her  the  "  law  of  salvation ; "  and 
his  declarations,  that,  "next  to  that  law,  the  father  and 
mother  are,  for  a  son,  deity  itself,"  —  that  "it  is  better 
for  him  to  honor  them  than  the  gods  of  heaven  and 
earth,"  —  and  that,  "if  he  should  carry  them  on  his 
shoulders  for  a  hundred  years,  he  could  not  repay 
them  for  their  care."3  Buddhism  discourages  polyg- 
amy :    so   that   throughout  its  dominions  this  custom 

1  Hardy,  p.  484. 

2  Bennett's  Life  of  Ga?tdama^  from  the  Burmese  (Am-  Or.  Journ.,  III.). 

3  Koeppen,  I.  473;  St.  Hilaire,  p.  92. 


654  BUDDHISM. 

is  exceptional,  endured  rather  than  allowed,  even  in 
the  rich  and  powerful ;  and  in  Ceylon,  Siam,  and  else- 
where, monogamy  only  is  legal.1 

It  makes  the  wife  the  companion  of  the  husband, 
assigning  her  a  freedom  unknown  to  other  Oriental  re- 
ligions, and  she  shares  his  public  and  private  activity.1 
There  is  significance  in  the  legend  already  mentioned, 
that  Gopa,  the  wife  of  Gotama,  renounced  the  use  of 
the  veil  as  soon  as  married,  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
unworthy  of  a  woman,  who  knew  her  modesty  and 
virtue  to  be  open  to  the  gods,  to  hide  her  face  from  the 
world.2  "Women  in  Burmah  have  the  custody  of 
their  husbands'  cash,  and  do  the  chief  part  of  all 
buying  and  selling  ;  and  their  intercourse  with  foreign- 
ers as  well  as  countrymen  is  open  and  unrestricted. 
Private  schools  for  girls  are  not  uncommon,  and  no 
obstacle  is  placed  in  the  way  of  female  education. 
Females  of  the  higher  classes  do  not  contemn  in- 
dustry, nor  affect  the  listlessness  of  some  Orientals."3 
In  Siam,  men  of  all  ranks  are  greatly  aided  by  the 
energy  of  their  wives,  especially  in  public  affairs. 
Women  retail  goods  and  make  trading  voyages  on 
their  own  account,  and  are  as  free  in  their  movements 
as  men.4 

The  polyandry  of  the  Thibetan  tribes  is  not  a  Budd- 
hist institution  :  it  is  ascribed  to  the  poverty  of  the 
steppes,  which  renders  it  difficult  for  one  man  to  sup- 
port a  family ;  to  the  necessity  of  protection  to  the  wife 
during  the  long  absence  of  the  husband  on  trading 
journeys,  and  to  the  inferiority  of  females  to  males  in 
point  of  numbers.5 

1  See  authorities  in  Koeppen,  I.  474.  2  St.  Hilaire,  Le  Bouddka,  p.  9. 

3  Makom's  Travels  in  Burman  Empire'.   Notes,  ch.  iii. 

4  Journal  of  Indian  Archipelago  (1847). 
6  Lloyd's  Himalayas,  Koeppen,  476. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  655 

No  teacher  ever  accorded  a  higher  place  to  modesty 
and  to  chastity  than  Gotama.  His  monks,  in  the  Modesty 
extravagance  of  ascetic  discipline,  were  even  andchastity- 
forbidden  to  look  upon  a  woman,  and,  if  they  spoke 
to  one,  were  to  say  inwardly,  "In  a  corrupt  world,  I 
ought  to  be  a  lotus  without  spot."  The  Dhammapada 
declares  that  "so  long  as  the  love  of  man  towards 
woman  is  not  destroyed,  so  long  is  his  mind  in  bond- 
age." Yet,  by  a  turn  not  uncommon  in  this  Oriental 
preaching  of  superlatives  and  absolutes,  these  same 
monks  are  bidden  to  "treat  older  women  as  their 
mothers,  those  but  a  little  older  than  themselves  as 
elder  sisters,  and  those  a  little  younger  as  their  younger 
sisters." 

The  excessive  care  with  which  the  relations  of  the 
sexes  were  guarded  was  indeed  a  part  of  the  moral 
reaction  of  Buddhism  on* a  social  condition,  the  char- 
acter of  which  may  be  inferred  from  the  habit  of  the 
Brahmanical  ascetics  to  go  naked.  Against  this  cus- 
tom, Gotama  protested  with  special  energy.  His 
mendicants  must  be  clothed,  however  starved  or  desti- 
tute ;  and  there  are  legends  of  very  early  date  expres- 
sive of  his  indignation  at  the  opposite  custom.1  There 
is  a  tone  of  satire  in  the  language  of  the  Dhammapada 
on  these  uncivilized  ways  of  attaining  sainthood.  "  Not 
nakedness,  nor  dirt,  nor  fasting,  nor  lying  on  the 
ground,  nor  rubbing  with  dust,  nor  sitting  in  one 
posture,  can  purify  a  mortal  who  has  not  overcome 
his  desires."2  In  an  old  Buddhist  legend,  a  damsel, 
seeing  some  of  these  offensive  ascetics,  cries  out,  "O 
mother !  if  these  are  saints,  what  must  sinners  be 
like?" 

1  Burnouf,  p.  312.  2  Dhammapada,  v.  141. 


656  BUDDHISM. 

Its  admission  of  women  into  the  religious  life  x  en- 
abled Buddhism  to  enforce  these  better  ideas  of  social 
decency.  It  may  here  be  observed  that  the  very 
earliest  notices  we  have  of  Buddhism  —  those  of  Me- 
gasthenes,  and  Clement  of  Alexandria  —  mention  the 
devotees  and  philosophers  of  this  faith  as  consisting 
of  women  as  well  as  men.2 

The  Buddhist  idea  of  friendship  is  thus  given  in 
Friendship.  Singhalese  Sutras  :  — 

"  The  true  friend  is  he  who  is  faithful  in  prosperity  and  adversity, 
a  friend  who  brings  his  sympathy.  He  prevents  you  from  doing 
wrong,  urges  you  to  do  well ;  tells  you  what  you  did  not  know,  and 
teaches  you  to  enter  the  true  paths;  defends  you  when  he  hears 
you  disparaged ;  saves  you  from  low  habits  ;  soothes  your  fears  ; 
divides  his  substance  with  you."  3 

"  When  any  one  tells  what  he  heard  here  or  there,  to  put  friends 
at  enmity  or  sow  dissension,  or  by  insinuation  leads  friends  to  ques- 
tion each  other's  sincerity,  it  is  slander,  and  will  be  punished  in 
future  births." 4 

As  in  Stoicism,  so  here,  personal  independence  is 
made  to  teach  the  finer  uses  of  companionship,  and 
the  real  substance  of  mutual  help. 

"  If  a  traveller  does  not  meet  with  one  who  is  his  better  or  his 
equal,  who  is  wise  and  sober,  let  him  walk  alone,  like  a  lonely  ele- 
phant, like  a  king." 

"If  one  wise  man  be  associated  with  another,  he  will  at  once 
perceive  the  truth,  as  the  tongue  a  taste." 

"  He  who  has  tasted  the  sweetness  of  solitude  and  tranquillity  is 
free  from  fear.  Trust  is  the  best  of  relatives.  [Yet]  if  he  find  a 
prudent  companion,  he  may  walk  with  him,  overcoming  all  dangers." 

"  Friends  are  pleasant ;  pleasant  is  mutual  enjoyment ;  a  good 
work  is  pleasant  in  the  hour  of  death  ;  pleasant  the  state  of  a 
father,  pleasant  the  state  of  a  mother." 

1  See  Hardy,  Manual,  39,  311.  2  Kruse's  Indiens  Alte  Geschichte,  p.  124. 

3  Hardy,  Manual,  d.  484.  4  Ibid.,  p.  471. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  657 

"  If  you  see  a  wise  man  who  shows  what  is  to  be  avoided,  and 
who  administers  reproofs,  follow  that  wise  man." 

"  Have  for  friends  the  best  of  men,  —  men  of  pure  life,  who  are 
not  slothful."  ' 

Gotama  in  the  legends  is  perpetually  serving  others, 
in  every  kind  of  emergency ;  not  the  least  Buddha's 
frequent  form  of  his  service  being  the  recon-  humanity 
ciliation  of  enemies,  in  accordance  with  the  precept 
ascribed  to  him  from  the  beginning,  "  Hatred  does 
not  cease  by  hatred  at  any  time  :  hatred  ceases  by 
love."2  He  is  indeed  believed  to  have  voluntarily 
endured  infinite  trials,  through  numberless  ages  and 
births,  that  he  might  deliver  mankind;  foregoing  the 
right  to  enter  nirvana,  and  casting  himself  again  and 
again  into  the  stream  of  human  life  and  destiny,  for 
this  purpose  alone,  —  of  teaching  the  one  way  of  de- 
liverance from  pain  into  freedom.3 

"This  way  was  preached  by  me,  when  I  had  understood  the 
removal  of  the  thorns." 

"And  you  yourself  must  make  effort.  The  Buddhas  are  but 
preachers.  It  is  the  thoughtful  that  are  freed  from  the  bondage  of 
Mara  (the  tempter)." 4 

This  persistent  moral  energy  is  the  ideal  held  before 
the  Buddhist  devotee.  Positive  helpfulness,  through 
real  sacrifice  and  lowly  service,  is  the  core  of  the 
doctrine. 

"One  does  not  belong  to  himself:  how  much  less  do  his  sons 
and  wealth  belong  to  him  !  " 

"  The  good  delights  in  this  world  and  the  next ;  he  delights  in 
his  own  work ;  happy  when  he  thinks  of  that  which  he  does  ; 
happier  still  when  going  on  the  good  path." 

1  Dhammap.,  61,  329,  65,  204,  205,  331,  332,  76,  78,  375. 

2  Ibid.,  5.     See  Hardy,  passim  ;  Buddhaghosha's  Parables,  &c. 

3  Hardy,  Manual,  p.  98.  4  Dhammap.,  275,  276. 

42 


658  BUDDHISM. 

"  Like  a  well-trained  steed,  touched  by  the  whip,  be  active  ;  and 
by  faith,  virtue,  energy,  meditation,  and  discernment,  you  will  over- 
come, perfected  in  knowledge  and  in  conduct." ' 

It  has  been  thought  that  earlier  Buddhism  shows  no 
traces  of  a  definite  belief  in  future  places  of  punish- 
ment for  the  wicked ;  that  this  dogma  grew  up  with 
the  growth  of  a  hierarchy.2  If  such  was  the  fact,  it 
must  have  been  so  for  the  reason  that  the  first  apostles 
of  this  faith  were  too  much  absorbed  in  the  zeal  of 
pity  to  find  room  for  prophesying  wrath.  But,  while 
even  the  later  forms  of  Buddhism  do  not  assert  the 
dogma  of  eternal  punishment,3  the  opinion  just  stated 
is  hardly  confirmed  by  the  documents  of  the  earlier 
time  which  are  within  our  reach.  Buddhism  found 
the  transmigration-hells  in  full  currency,  in  Brahmani- 
cal  faith.  The  Dhammapada  consigns  the  wicked 
thither  after  death  with  great  directness  of  speech.4 
Yet,  in  all  description  of  moral  penalty,  it  refers  the 
evil-doer  to  the  essential  quality  and  present  effects  of 
vice,  not  to  an  arbitrary  punishment  in  the  future. 

"  The  evil-doer  burns  by  his  own  deeds,  as  if  burnt  by  fire." 

"  All  that  we  are  is  the  result  of  what  we  have  thought :  it  is 
founded  on  our  thoughts,  made  up  of  our  thoughts.  If  a  man 
speaks  or  acts  with  evil  thought,  pain  follows,  as  the  wheel  the  foot 
of  him  who  draws  the  carriage." 

"  Him  who  lives  seeking  pleasure  and  uncontrolled,  the  tempter 
will  overcome,  as  the  wind  throws  down  a  weak  tree." 

"  The  evil-doer  mourns  when  he  sees  the  evil  of  his  own  work. 
He  suffers  when  he  thinks  of  the  evil  he  has  done  :  he  suffers  more 
when  going  on  the  evil  path." 

"  Thoughtlessness  is  the  path  of  death.  They  who  are  thought- 
less are  dead  already.  An  evil  deed  follows  the  fool,  smouldering 
like  fire  covered  by  ashes." 

1  Dliammap.)  62,  16,  18,  144.  2  Koeppen,  I.  239. 

3  Bastian,  Wettauff.  d.  Buddfi.,  p.  iS;  Muller's  Dkammap.,  p.  xciv. 

4  Ibid.,  v    140. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  659 

"  It  crushes  the  wicked,  as  a  diamond  breaks  a  stone  :  it  brings 
him  down,  as  a  creeper  the  tree  it  surrounds." ' 

"  The  wrong-doer,  thinking  on  his  conduct,  is  constantly  in  fear. 
Even  crimes  committed  long  ago  trouble  him ;  as  the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  reaches  far  into  the  distance  at  the  setting  of  the  sun." 2 

The  extravagant  strain  in  which  the  Master's  self- 
sacrifice  and  humanity  are  described  in  later  Its  exagger. 
rr^thology  must  weaken  the  practical  influence  ated  tone- 
of  the  moral  law  on  the  lives  of  his  followers ;  just  as 
those  elements  in  the  New  Testament  representation  of 
Jesus,  which  take  him  outside  human  experience  and 
sympathy,  have  issued  in  much  sentimental  worship 
of  a  far-off  preternatural  ideal,  in  place  of  respect  for 
the  real  laws  of  human  character.  Yet  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  for  Buddhism  this  exaggerated  tone 
is  not,  as  it  is  for  Western  civilization,  out  of  keeping 
with  ordinary,  habitual  thought,  with  common  sense 
and  real  intercourse ;  and  therefore  creates  no  re- 
action of  indifference,  irresponsibility,  skepticism,  or 
contempt. 

The  Dhammapada  emphasizes  moral  personality  as 
strongly  as   Stoicism  or  Platonism  ;    insisting 

o  J  °      Character. 

on  its  independence  and  self-sustainment,  on 

its  authority  as  source  of  all  other  values,  and  on  the 

bliss  of  its  inward  life. 

"  All  that  we  are  is  the  issue  of  our  thought." 

"  Poison  affects  not  one  who  has  no  wound  ;  nor  is  there  evil  for 

one  who  does  no  evil." 

"  Not  even  a  god,  not  Mara,  nor  Brahma,  could  change  into  defeat 

the  victory  of  a  man  over  himself." 

"  Self  is  the  lord  of  self:  who  else  could  be  the  lord  ? " 

"  Let  no  one  forget  his  own  duty  for  the  sake  of  another's." 

•'  Better  than  ruling  the  world,  better  than  going  to  heaven,  than 

lordship  over  all,  is  the  reward  of  the  first  step  in  virtue." 

1  DJuzmmap.,  w.  136,  1,  7,  15,  17,  21,  71,  123,  161,  162. 

2  Singhalese  Sutra,  Hardy,  485. 


660  BUDDHISM. 

"  The  fields  are  damaged  by  weeds,  and  man  by  wishing." 

"  From  greed  comes  grief,  from  greed  comes  fear." 

"  As  a  rock  is  not  shaken  by  the  wind,  so  the  wise  falter  not  in 

praise  or  blame  :  they  are  serene  like  a  deep  lake." 

"The  just  man,  who  speaks  truly,  and  does  his  own  work,  the 

world  will  love." 

"  The  gift  of  the  law  excels  all  other  gifts,  its  sweetness  all 

sweetness,  its  joy  all  joys."  ' 

It  declares  personality  the  substance  of  power  also. 

"  The  scent  of  flowers  travels  not  against  the  wind  ;  but  the 
fragrance  of  goodness  travels  even  against  the  wind.  A  good  man 
pervades  every  place. 

"  The  good,  like  snowy  mountains,  shine  from  afar :  the  bad,  like 
arrrows  shot  by  night,  are  not  seen." 2 

The  motive  power  of  love,  which  depends  on  its 
sense  of  opportunity,  is  most  impaired  by  disparage- 
ment of  man's  moral  capacity.  But  Buddhism  said 
with  Plato,  —  Only  open  the  eyes,  the  will  cannot  re- 
fuse to  follow  the  light. 

"The  taint,  worse  than  all  others,  is  ignorance."3 

Nor  has  any  religion  more  clearly  separated  mo- 
rality from  ritual,  or  more  firmly  emphasized  the  spirit 
of  conduct,  as  compared  with  the  form. 

"  He  who  would  put  on  the  yellow  robe  without  cleansing  himself 
from  sin,  disregarding  temperance  and  truth,  is  unworthy  to  wear  it. 

"  Better  a  moment's  homage  to  a  man  of  wise  spirit  than  sacrifice 
for  a  hundred  years." 4 

"It  is  not  platted  hair,  nor  family,  nor  birth,  that  consecrates 
thee  a  Brahmana.  He  in  whom  there  is  truth  and  right-doing,  he  is 
the  blessed  Brahmana. 

"What  will  platted  hair  profit  thee,  O  foolish  one  !  or  the  raiment 
of  goatskins  ?  Within  thee  is  the  abyss,  while  thou  art  making 
clean  the  outside." 

1  Dltammap '.,  w.  i,  124,  105,  160,  166,  178,  359,  216,  81-S2,  217,  354.       2  Ibid.,  54,  304. 
3  Ibid.,  243.  4  Ibid.,  9,  106. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  66l 

"  Whoso  has  burst  all  fetters  and  is  without  fear ;  who  guiltless 
suffers  shame  and  smiting  in  silence  ;  from  whom  desire  and  hatred, 
pride  and  envy,  have  dropped  ;  who  strives  not  for  his  own  gain,  and 
who  doubts  not  when  he  has  seen  the  truth  ;  who  has  risen  above  all 
bondage  to  the  gods,  whose  even  spirit  nought  can  ruffle  ;  who  has 
come  to  know  the  way  that  is  without  death  ;  the  manly,  the  hero, 
the  conqueror,  the  pure,  the  awakened,  him  call  I  indeed  a  Brah- 
mana."  l 

Among  the  parables  ascribed  to  Gotama  in  the 
"  Lotus "  is  one  which  teaches  that  spiritual  light  is 
better  than  miracle  :  — 

"  A  man  blind  from  birth  denied  the  existence  of  the  world  which 
he  could  not  see,  until  miraculously  cured ;  when  he  went  to  the 
opposite  extreme,  and  boasted  that  he  knew  every  thing,  despising 
all  other  men  as  blind.  Thereupon  he  was  rebuked  by  wiser  persons, 
who  proved  to  him  that  with  all  his  outward  seeing  he  as  yet  knew 
nothing,  since  no  outward  miracle  wrought  on  his  eyes  could  give 
him  power  to  discern  truth  from  error,  or  to  dissipate  the  greater 
darkness  within  him.  Ashamed  of  his  vanity,  the  man  desired  to 
know  the  way  of  life,  and  obtained  spiritual  wisdom." 

Gotama,  charged  by  a  Brahman  with  idling  away 
his  time  instead  of  ploughing  and  sowing,  replied  : 
"  I  do  plough  and  sow,  reaping  thence  fruit  that  is  im- 
mortal."— "Where  are  your  implements,  O  Gotama  !  " 
—  "My  field  is  the  law;  the  weeds  I  clear  away  are 
the  cleaving  to  life  ;  my  plough  is  wisdom  ;  the  seed  I 
sow  is  purity ;  my  work,  attention  to  the  precepts  ; 
my  harvest,  nirvana."'2' 

The  reader  may  judge  from  these  illustrations 
whether  it  is  just  to  call  the  morality  of  Budd-  christ 
hism  merely  negative  or  merely  passive ;  and 
what  to  think  of  comparisons,  common  among  Chris- 
tian writers  in  treating  this  subject,  of  a  character  like 
the  following :  — 

1  Dhammap.,  Tlte  Brakmana  Chapter.  2  Milinda  Prasiia. 


i,m 
critics. 


662  BUDDHISM. 

"  The  Christian  does  wrong  to  no  one,  because  he 
loves  the  neighbor ;  the  Buddhist,  because  he  commis- 
erates the  man.  True  morality  seeks  to  create  some- 
what ;  but  Buddhistic  morality  is  mere  renunciation 
and  inaction :  its  virtue  is  in  leaving  undone." J 
"Vice  had  no  intrinsic  hideousness,  and  virtue  was 
but  another  name  for  calculating  prudence  ;  while  love 
was  little  more  than  animal  sympathy.  The  Budd- 
hist could  only  say,  'I  must:'  he  could  not  say,  fI 
ought.'"  (!)2 

So  St.  Hilaire  knows  no  end  of  charges  against  this 
faith  of  three  hundred  millions  of  souls.  It  is  "  skep- 
ticism, nihilism,  atheism,  materialism,  fatalism;  un- 
belief in  the  good  in  man,  in  the  world  ;  without  notion 
of  duty,  or  distinction  of  man  from  vilest  matter."3 
Yet  he  is  constrained  to  add,  after  all,  concerning  it: 
"  By  the  way  of  pain,  as  by  every  other,  man  may 
arrive  at  God.  The  way  is  more  grievous  for  our 
weakness,  but  it  is  no  less  sure."4  How  much  wiser 
this  word  than  those  sweeping  condemnations,  without 
insight,  sympathy,  or  faith  ! 

Buddhism,  on  its  side,  may  have  something  to  say 
in  regard  to  the  morality  of  Christian  and  Jewish  the- 
ology. And  the  conversations  of  the  "  Modern  Budd- 
hist," before  referred  to,  with  Dr.  Gutzlaff  and  other 
missionaries,  afford  a  good  idea  of  the  impression  made 
by  much  of  it  on  his  simple  rationalism. 

"  How,"  asks  this  modern  Buddhist,  "  can  we  assent 
to  the  doctrine  that  a  man  can  be  received  into  heaven 
while  his  nature  is  yet  full  of  impurity,  by  virtue  of 
sprinkling  his  head  with  water,  or  cutting  off  by  cir- 


1  Wuttke,  Gesch.  d.  Heidenth.,  II.  576-7. 

2  Hardwick,  Christ  and  Other  Masters.,  I.  239. 

8  Du  Bouddhisme  (Paris,  1855).  4  Du  Bouddhisme,  p.  236. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  66$ 

cumcision  a  small  piece  of  his  skin?  I  do  not  see 
that  any  one  who  is  baptized  nowadays  is  free  from 
the  f  curse  of  Adam,'  or  escapes  toil  and  grief,  and 
sickness  and  death,  more  than  those  who  are  not  bap- 
tized. So  far  as  I  see,  the  unconverted  flourish  ;  but 
the  converted  are  continually  in  debt  and  bondage. 
They  continually  pray  to  God ;  but  it  seems  nothing 
happens  according  to  their  prayer."  He  combats 
eternal  damnation  on  the  ground  that  "  there  is  no 
being  who  has  not  done  something  good ;  and  that  it 
would  be  to  deny  to  good  works  the  same  power  of 
producing  fruit  that  is  ascribed  to  evil  works." 

"How,"  he  asks  further,  "can  we  believe  that  God 
made  this  inconceivable  multitude  of  immense  stars  in 
one  day,  yet  required  five  days  to  make  this  little 
world,  this  mere  drop  in  the  great  ocean?"  "And 
why  does  your  scriptural  account  of  the  creation  differ 
from  the  teaching  of  philosophers  who  show  thai  the 
world  is  a  revolving  globe  ?  " 

"  The  Lord  Buddha  taught,  saying  :  '  All  you  who  are  in  doubt 
whether  there  be  a  future  life  had  better  believe  there  is  one.' 

"  '  Do  not  believe  merely  because  you  have  heard,  but,  when  of 
your  own  conscience  you  know  a  thing  to  be  evil,  abstain  from  it. 
Do  not  believe  because  the  written  statement  of  some  old  sage  is 
produced  :  nor,  in  what  you  have  fancied,  think  that  because  an 
idea  is  extraordinary  it  must  have  been  implanted  by  a  divine 
being.     You  must  know  of  yourselves.'  "  l 

The  proselyting  energy  of  Buddhism  is  sufficient 
evidence    that   its   moral    ideal   was    far  from  _     .  . 

Proselytisni. 

being  a  merely  passive  one.     Unquestionably 
its  purpose  was  the  taming  of  wild  races  by  gentle- 
ness and  endurance,  and  the  deliverance  of  the  masses 
in  India  from  a  social  tyranny  which  violent  resistance 

1  Mod.  Buddhist,  in  The  Vllieel  of  the  Law. 


664  BUDDHISM. 

would  have  only  made  more  cruel.  In  these  respects, 
certainly,  its  passive  qualities  were  not  without  their 
uses.  All  religions  depend  in  large  measure  for  their 
special  elements  on  local  and  temporary  circum- 
stances. One  of  these  conditions  determinative  of 
the  tone  of  Buddhism  deserves  special  study. 

Its  love,  we  must  remember,  has  a  vast  background 
inspiration  of  Pain-  Pity  was  tne  inspiration  of  these 
of  pity.  early  philanthropists.  Buddha  is  filled  with 
pity  for  the  multitudes  sunk  in  perplexity  and  pain  ; 
and  it  is  this  feeling  of  compassion  which  conquers 
his  own  fears,  and  even  decides  him  to  accept  his 
mission.1  That  "  helpfulness  towards  the  neighbor, 
hospitality  to  the  stranger,  reverence  before  age, 
gentleness  towards  servants,  forbearance  towards 
conquered  enemies,"  which  made  the  burden  of  his 
teaching,  flowed  from  a  keen  sense  of  the  wants  and 
miseries  of  human  destiny.  Hence  the  stress  laid  on 
kindness  as  due  to  the  fallen  and  weak.  "  Of  the 
whole  two  hundred  and  fifty  virtuous  deeds,  the  high- 
est is  to  spare  a  living  being/' 2  Hence  the  legends 
of  Gotama,  as  well  as  the  Buddhist  fable-books,  which 
push  this  perception  of  the  possibilities  of  suffering  so 
far  as  to  make  light  of  all  actual  forms  of  it  in  one's 
own  person.  Their  Oriental  extravagance  is  not  with- 
out a  symbolic  basis  of  dignity,  absurd  as  it  may  look 
to  us.  Thus  he  is  related  to  have  met  a  tigress,  too 
weak  with  hunger  to  attack  him  :  whereat  he  tore  off 
his  own  skin,  and  suffered  her  to  lick  the  blood  from 
it,  and  then  put  himself  into  her  claws  to  be  torn  in 
pieces. 

"  When  a  good  man  is  reproached,  he  is  to  think  within  himself: 
'  These  are  certainly  good  people  since  they  do  not  beat  me.'     If 

1  St.  Hilaire,  p.  33.  2  Wuttke,  II.  581. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  665 

they  begin  to  beat  him  with  fists,  he  will  say,  '  They  are  mild  and 
good,  because  they  do  not  beat  me  with  clubs.1  If  they  proceed  to 
this,  he  says,  '  They  are  excellent,  for  they  do  not  strike  me  dead.' 
If  they  kill  him,  he  dies  saying,  '  How  good  they  are  in  freeing  me 
from  this  miserable  body  ! ' " 

Certainly  persecution  was  wasted  on  resistance  like 
this.  "  The  Cynic,"  says  Epictetus,  also  no  senti- 
mentalist, "  must  love  those  who  beat  him,  as  the 
father,  as  the  brother  of  all." 

We  can  easily  pardon  excesses  in  the  mythologic  play 
of  this  instinct  of  forgiveness,  when  we  find  The  nobility 
that  the  spirit  of  love  is  really  the  one  creative  of  love- 
force  of  Buddhist  literature.  The  legends  of  Buddha, 
in  all  their  extravagance,  are  filled  with  a  certain  di- 
vine innocence,  and  a  childlike  love  that  seems  to 
have  no  conception  of  any  limit  to  its  own  power. 
We  can  afford  to  let  childish  fancy  run  its  wild  way, 
for  the  sake  of  the  many  refreshing  stories  of  Budd- 
ha's mildness  towards  his  enemies ;  overcoming  evil 
with  good,  and  reconciling  hostile  armies  and  divided 
friends.1 

"  When  surrounded  by  all  his  retinue  of  followers,  and  glorified 
by  the  whole  world,  he  never  thought, '  These  privileges  are  mine  ; ' 
but  did  good,  just  as  the  shower  brings  gladness,  yet  reflects  not  on 
its  work."  2 

What  delicacy  of  sentiment  is  in  these  proverbs, 
ascribed  to  him  !  — 

"  The  true  sage  dwells  on  earth  as  the  bee  that  gathers  sweetness 
with  his  mouth  and  wings,  without  harming  the  color  and  perfume 
of  the  flower."3 

"  The  swans  [wild  fowl  ?]  go  on  the  path  of  the  sun  :  they  go 
through  the  ether,  by  their  miraculous  power  [instinct].     So  are  the 

1  Hardy, passim.  2  Ibid.,  374.  3  Dliaimnapada,  49. 


666  BUDDHISM. 

wise  led  out  of  this  world,  when  they  have  conquered  Mara  (the 
tempter)  and  his  train."  ' 

"  The  heart  of  love  and  faith  accompanying  good  actions  spreads 
a  beneficent  shade  through  all  the  worlds." 2 

Fahian  relates  that  Buddha,  fleeing  his  Brahmanical 
enemies,  met  a  poor  Brahman  asking  alms.  Having 
nothing  to  give,  he  had  himself  bound  and  delivered 
over  to  his  enemies,  that  his  ransom  might  serve  as  alms 
for  this  member  of  a  class  who  were  persecutors  of  his 
faith.  The  Burmese  relate  that,  hearing  all  living 
beings  singing  his  praises,  Gotama  called  Ananda, 
and  said  :  "  All  this  is  unworthy  of  me  :  no  such  vain 
homage  can  accomplish  the  commands  of  the  law. 
They  who  do  righteously  pay  me  most  honor,  and 
please  me  most."3 

Passing  into  his  nirvana,  this  Master  leaves  his 
„     disciples  assurance  that  there  is  a  divinity  in 

The  endless  *  J 

process  of    man   that  for   ever   works  for    universal    and 
remedial  ends.    "  When  I  am  gone,  O  Ananda  ! 
you   must  not  think  there   is   no   Buddha.      For  my 
words  shall  be  your  Buddha." 

He  has  uttered  his  song  of  triumph  over  the 
senses :  — 

"  Painful  are  repeated  transmigrations  ; 
But  now  have  I  beheld  the  architect. 
Thou  shalt  not  build  me  another  house  : 
Thy  rafters  are  broken,  thy  roof-timbers  scattered. 
My  mind  is  detached  from  all. 
I  have  attained  the  extinction  of  desire." 4 

His  accumulated  merits,  the  karma,  or  embodied 
powers  of  his  past  moral  attainments,  flow  forth,  as 

1  Dliamtn.,  175.  2  BuddJiagoshd's  Parables,  p.  16.  3  Bigandet,  p.  299. 

*  Hardy's  Manual,  p.  1S0.  "The  architect"  here  is  simply  a  poetic  expression  for 
the  causes  of  successive  births.     Miiller's  Dhammap.,  p.  ciii. 


ETHICS   AND    HUMANITIES.  667 

if  set  free  from  private  limits,  into   the  worlds,   and 
renew  all  living  creatures. 

He  passes  away,  and  there  is  no  return  in  the  flesh. 

"  Freed  from  illusions  of  joy  and  of  pain, 
He  comes  not  and  goes  not,  He  comes  not  again." 

But  not  for  that  reason  is  the  eternal  law  of  release 
by  love  to  fail.  "  Its  substance  exists  for  ever  without 
change."  Nirvana  cannot  touch  this  essentially  human 
and  inevitable  force.  The  process  is  repeated,  after 
his  assumption  of  it,  as  it  had  been  again  and  again 
before  his  day.  "One  lamp  is  extinguished,"  say  the 
Chinese  Buddhists,  "but  the  light  is  not  put  out;  for 
the  flame  is  imparted  to  another."  Men  press  by 
myriads  towards  the  goal  of  power,  to  the  verge  of 
Buddhahood,  with  like  stress  of  redeeming  sacrifice.1 
"  Genuine  Buddhism  has  no  priesthood :  the  saint 
despises  the  priest,  and  scorns  the  aid  of  mediators."2 
Another  and  another  Buddha  comes,  with  the  old 
blessing  and  promise.  It  is  the  prolific  virtue  of 
human  nature  that  is  here  affirmed,  the  endless  har- 
vest of  the  heart.  The  millions  of  incomparable 
Buddhas  are  the  throbs  of  its  eternal  love.  So  it  was 
that  the  East  conceived  this  love  ;  and  men  rejoiced 
in  it,  dreamed  of  it,  lived,  toiled,  and  died,  by  faith 
in  it. 

Finally,  incarnation  itself,  in  the  Buddhist  system, 
is  conceived  as  moral  incentive,  not  as  theo-  . 

Incarnation 

logical  dogma.     Gotama,  like  all  the  Buddhas  moral  and 
before  him,  is  originally  a  man.    And  in  viola- 
tion of  all  theories  of  mere  outward  fatalism,  having 
attained  deity,  he  chooses  to  throw  himself  anew  into 
the   chain  of  causes  and  effects,  for  the  deliverance 

1  See  Wilson's  Essays  on  Religion  of  the  Hindus,  II.  361.  2  Hodgson. 


668  BUDDHISM. 

of  mankind  from  pain.  Love  here  pronounces  itself 
lord  of  Fate.  Buddha  assumes  human  suffering  and 
death  with  moral  freedom,  and  from  inward  spiritual 
energy.  The  Alan  becomes  God  again,  through  self- 
devoting  will.  And  this  is  not  regarded  as  miracu- 
lous nor  exceptional ;  but  as  natural  power  and  law 
of  life,  since  all  other  men  may  do  the  same.1 

"There  is  no  difference  between  the  true  saints  and  Buddha 
himself.     All  are  Buddhas."  2 

Nor  is  this  faith  without  its  forward  look.  One  future 
The  coming  Buddha  is  already  foreknown,  and  all  the  sects 
good.  have  honored  this  hope  of  the  ages.  After 
five  thousand  years,  Gotama  will  be  followed  by  Mait- 
reya,  the  Compassionate  One,3  who  will  restore  all 
that  is  lost  in  these  sad  deeps  of  illusion  and  vanity, 
and  rehabilitate  virtue  and  bliss.4  Fahian  found 
Maitreya  honored  in  India  in  the  fourth  century  of 
our  era ;  and  Hiouen  Tshang's  prayer  was  that  he 
might  dwell  in  this  redeemer's  bosom,  and  love  and 
serve  him  for  ever.5 

In  fine,  where  we  had  been  led  to  expect  suppres- 
compensa-  si°n  of  all  moral  energy,  we  find  a  heroic 
tion.  spirit  of  universal  love.     Must  we  not  recog- 

nize that  one  and  the  same  law  of  providential  educa- 
tion covers  all  races  and  religions,  when  we  see  the 
crushing  moral  discouragements  that  are  so  commonly 
believed  inherent  in  the  Buddhist  doctrines  of  fate  and 
of  merit  thus  counteracted  and  compensated,  and  the 
nobler  powers  saved? 

As    in    previous    reactions    against  the    priesthood, 

»  Wuttke,  II.  567. 

2  Hodgson,  Sketch  of  Buddhism  (  Transact.  R.  A.  S.,  II.  243). 

3  Compare  Persian  Mitra  (mercy).        4  Koeppen,  I.  327.        5  St.  Hilaire,  p.  293. 


ETHICS   AND    HUMANITIES.  669 

recorded  in  the  Br'ahmanas,  the  protestants  had  be- 
longed to  the  Kshattriya  race,1  so  Gotama  also  Relation  t0 
was  a  prince.  We  should  infer  from  the Hindu  life< 
earlier  Sutras  that  he  did  not  undertake  the  definite 
abolition  of  caste,  which  indeed  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  strictly  organized  in  Magadha,  where  his  preach- 
ing first  found  success.2  But  he  ignored  it  in  the 
choice  of  a  wife  and  of  disciples :  he  rejected  its  prin- 
ciple in  the  whole  substance  of  his  gospel ;  and  the 
first  compiler  of  his  precepts,  Upali,  was  a  Sudra. 
Caste,  for  Gotama,  could  have  no  meaning.  It  was 
simply  not  worth  his  recognition  :  it  faded  before  the 
common  destiny,  the  common  need,  the  common  hope. 
He  aimed  at  no  political  revolution.  His  very  phil- 
osophy was  rooted,  like  the  mystical  banyan,  in  the 
natural  soil  of  Hindu  thought.3  It  developed  this  so 
as  to  show  that  the  only  solution  of  its  dark  and  deep 
riddles  was  in  love  and  labor.  His  protest  proved 
that  the  severest  social  constraints  must  bring  reaction 
to  liberty  and  brotherhood  in  some  form ;  that  the 
brain  cannot  be  kept  from  asserting  its  need  of  the 
heart.  Thus,  although  a  natural  result  of  Hindu  in- 
tellect, Buddha's  gospel  struck  at  all  aristocratic  foun- 
dations in  Hindu  society.  So  far  as  the  latter  had 
become  organized  in  the  form  we  find  in  Manu,  it 
must  have  been  speedily  shorn,  in  large  measure,  of 
many  despotic  elements,  by  the  immense  energy 
of  this  levelling  and  humanizing  force ;  and  the  state 
of  India,  as  described  by  later  authorities,  Greek  and 
Chinese,  affords  striking  evidence  of  the  fact.  This 
thorough  democracy  fully  rejected  the  theoretic  basis 
on  which  castes  were  founded,  and  substituted  others, 
which    could    allow  them   at  best  only   a  temporary 

1  Miiller,  Sa?isk.  Lit.,  p.  80.         2  Weber,  Varies-,  p  250.        3  Ibid.,  pp.  248-250. 


670  BUDDHISM. 

authority.  They  were  declared  to  have  grown  up 
accidentally,  or  else  by  free  suffrage,  setting  individ- 
uals to  special  functions  for  the  common  good ;  all 
men  being  originally  of  one  race,  "  all  brahmas,"  and 
equally  pure,  —  Sudras,  for  instance,  being  simply 
persons  who  chose  to  live  by  the  chase,  —  and  the 
later  subordinations  having  no  warrant  in  divine  or 
human  law.1  They  were  also  closely  associated  with 
a  supposed  fall  of  man  from  primal  purity.2  From 
the  very  beginning  of  Buddhism,  the  Sudra  had  equal 
honor,  as  a  convert,  with  the  Kshattriya  or  Brahman. 
All  that  the  pride  of  thought  had  hoarded  should  go 
to  the  most  despised.  The  more  heavily  an  exclusive 
tradition  presses,  the  more  radical  will  be  the  remedy. 
The  whole  Brahmanical  system  was  put  to  the  test  of 
practical  service.  Buddhism,  as  we  have  said,  made 
democratic  application  of  every  product  of  Hindu 
thought.3  It  insisted  that  this  demand  of  mankind 
and  the  age  should  be  heard,  and  that  the  dead  Veda 
should  bury  its  dead.  Buddha,  musing  in  the  shadow 
of  his  fig-tree,  under  vow  "  not  to  rise  till  he  had  found 
the  way  to  end  the  misery  of  the  world,"  learned  that 
more  was  to  be  done  than  muse. 

The  celestial  dream  of  strife  subdued  and  hatred 
abolished,  and  the  joyless  return  of  the  "  bonds  of  ac- 
tion "  brought  to  an  end,  and  pain  and  death  con- 
quered for  ever,  should  not  come  to  a  few  dreamers, 
reposing  under  the  banyans  till  moss  grew  over  them, 
but  was  also  for  the  miserable  Sudras  and  Chandala 
outcasts,  who,  hopeless  of  any  release  from  their  social 
destiny,  came  to  gaze  in  awe  at  these  absorbed  saints 
and  bring  them  fruits  and  herbs.     So  he  arose,  and 

1  See  Journ.  R-  A .  S.,  vol.  vi.  p.  361.     Hardy,  Manual,  ch.  iii. 

2  Wuttke,  II.  534.  8  Lassen,  II.  440. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  67 1 

went  out  to  preach  his  "  mercy  to  all ;  " 1  and  bade  all 
idle  saints  get  up  and  come  out  of  their  ascetic  seclu- 
sion, and  do  likewise.  What  a  tocsin  to  ring  in  the 
old  slumbering  woods  of  India  !  The  idle  saints  got 
up  in  dismay  and  came  out,  but  it  was  for  the  most 
part,  if  the  Buddhist  Sutras  and  traditions  report  truly, 
not  to  preach  a  gospel,  but  to  silence  the  bold  reformer, 
by  force  of  words,  if  not  of  arms.  Doubtless  there  was 
effort,  as  there  always  is  under  such  temptation  for 
the  functionaries  of  an  old  religious  system,  to  excite 
the  ignorant  and  fanatical  against  him,  and  to  cast 
him  forth,  root  and  branch.  And  yet  we  must  be- 
ware of  ascribing  too  much  of  the  spirit  of  violence 
and  persecution  to  the  Brahmanical  priesthood.  It 
would  appear  that,  on  the  whole,  the  revolution  was 
peaceful;  its  progress  was  extremely  rapid,  as  if  the 
soil  favored  it ;  in  a  few  centuries  it  had  mastered 
most  of  the  Hindu  states  ;  and  more  than  a  thousand 
years  elapse  from  the  time  of  Buddha,  before  the 
persecution  arises  which  expels  his  followers  from 
India. 

In  truth  this  radicalism  was  a  powerful  appeal  to  all 
that  was  earnest  and  real  in  the  old  belief  Brahmanical 
itself,  and  naturally  found  a  deep  response.  s>mPathies- 
All  the  Buddhist  books  significantly  record  that  Brah- 
ma, himself  sustained  and  encouraged  Gotama  when 
oppressed  by  the  magnitude  of  the  work  before  him, 
and  urged  him  to  open  the  door  of  nirvana  to  the 
people  of  Magadha,  who  were  benighted  and  despond- 
ent, expecting  all  things  to  go  to  ruin  and  nature  itself 
to  fail.2  The  new  interpretation  schooled  the  Brahman 
in  principles  which  he  had  been  affirming  without  com- 

1  Burnouf,  p.  198. 

2  Feer  in  Journ-  Asiat.  (1866),  p.  95  ;  Bigandet,  p.  105  ;  Lalitav.,  &c. 


672  BUDDHISM. 

prehending  them.  The  root  of  his  own  religion  was 
in  this  democratic  Buddha,  after  all ;  for  eternal  truths 
belong  to  human  nature  and  must  go  to  the  people, 
and  pantheism  knows  no  essential  distinction  of  souls. 
The  brave  preacher  plainly  convicted  the  Brahman- 
ical  fraternity  of  abusing  their  own  doctrine  :  perhaps 
he  reproved  their  leaders  for  hypocrisy  and  charla- 
tanry,1 with  salutary  effect  upon  the  single-minded. 
He  was  a  better  Hindu  than  the  best  of  them  ;  for  he 
saw  that  the  principle  of  all  Hindu  philosophy  — 
"  knowing  truth  is  in  becoming  it  "  —  forbade  mo- 
nopoly, and  honored  mind  everywhere.  He  was  a 
better  Aryan  than  the  best  of  them  ;  for  he  understood 
that  right  of  mind  to  test  the  traditional  gods  which 
was  hinted  so  simply  when  the  Vedic  herdsman  called 
on  Indra  and  Agni,  in  the  olden  time,  to  come  down 
and  sit  beside  him  on  the  sacrificial  grass. 

The  hardest  saying  for  functionaries  of  the  Veda 
and  of  caste  to  accept,  was  doubtless  his  warn- 

Protest  r 

against  au-  ing  that  the  world  did  not  want  their  exclusive 
mediation  with  eternal  truth.  Yet  this  also  had 
been  heard  from  Kapila  and  others,  and  rationalism 
has  always  found  an  echo  in  Hindu  society.  Buddha 
was  clear  and  unmistakable  on  such  points.  "  The  Ve- 
das,"  he  must  have  said,  "  are  no  absolute  authority  for 
me  ;  my  truth  is  of  my  own  experience  ;  the  old  rishis 
cannot  enlighten  me  much  about  my  duties  to  this 
living,  suffering  world.  I  have  probed  their  dogmas 
and  disciplines,  and  find  them  inadequate.  To  every 
soul,  not  to  the  '  twice-born  '  only,  its  own  burden  ;  and 
through  its  own  wisdom  and  virtue,  its  release.2  Your 
laws  forbid  the  people  to  read  the  Vedas ;  but  better 
than  all  that  books  can  teach  is  it  to  see  that  there  is  no 

1  St.  Hilaire,  p.  43.  2  Dhammapada,  vv.  165,  169,  380. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  673 

distinction  of  persons  in  the  sorrow  that  besets  human 
life ;  and  this  misery  both  you,  and  those  you  bar  out 
from  sacred  things,  must  be  taught  to  dispel.  Come 
all  who  will,  the  saving  truth  is  free.  Your  Brah- 
manical  hermitages  are  not  the  best  asylums :  the 
truth  that  delivers  men  from  evil,  that  is  the  best 
asylum.1  Gather  others  to  hear  of  the  way  to  liber- 
ation ;  gather  them  into  schools,  fraternities,  monas- 
teries ;  gather  them  in  the  city  and  the  country  :  let 
every  soul  be  fed.  Your  fastings,  sacrifices,  repe- 
titions of  sacred  texts,  will  not  open  your  eyes  nor 
loose  your  bonds  :  they  are  vain  without  love.  Your 
animal  sacrifices  are  against  your  own  theory  of  mercy 
to  all  creatures,  and  the  sacredness  of  the  One  Life  in 
all  life.  You  rank  by  caste  :  I  proclaim  the  natural 
order,  the  oldest  and  best  first.  You  are  seeking 
your  own  deliverance :  I  demand  the  deliverance  of 
mankind." 

Burnouf  has  translated  an  old  Pali-Sutra,  in  which 
the  reformer  condemns  the  habits  of  luxury  and  the 
superstitious  divinations  for  gain  into  which  the  Brah- 
manic  priesthood  had  fallen,  as  well  as  the  passion 
for  the  theatre  and  for  games  of  chance ;  a  very 
Puritan  reaction  it  would  seem.2  His  protest  against 
intemperance  and  sensuality  was  uncompromising. 

Such  the  substance  of  Buddha's  criticism,  according 
to  the  oldest  Sutras,  which  go  back,  in  written  form, 
no  further  than  to  the  time  of  king  Asoka,  250  b.c  ; 
but  which  were  then,  according  to  universal  tradition, 
formed  out  of  earlier  materials  by  the  Buddhist  teach- 
ers, and  unquestionably  represent  the  purport  of  the 
teacher's  gospel.3 

1  Burnouf,  186.  2  Lotus,  p.  464. 

3  See  Koeppen,  I.  184;  Weber,  Vorles.,  253;  Lassen,  II.  8;  Miiller,  Sansk.  Lit., 
260-301. 

43 


674  BUDDHISM. 

If  this  aroused  opposition,  it  must  also  have  stirred 
much  profound  sympathy  in  the  best  of  the  Brahman- 
ical  schools.  But  that  so  searching  a  reform  could 
have  found  foothold  at  once,  and  marched  on  to  the 
ascendency  it  seems  to  have  won  within  a  few  centu- 
ries in  the  greater  part  of  India,  is  proof  that  Brah- 
manical  ecclesiasticism  in  no  wise  sharped  the  deeper 
currents  of  Hindu  feeling  and  life.  The  scope 
of  its  work  can  hardly  be  better  given  than  in  the 
language  of  Koeppen,  to  whose  admirable  volumes  all 
future  research  on  the  subject  must  be  incalculably 
indebted  :  — 

"  It  put  spiritual  brotherhood  in  place  of  hereditary  priesthood  ; 
personal  merit  in  place  of  distinctions  of  birth ;  human  intelli- 
gence in  place  of  authoritative  Vedas  ;  the  self-perfected  sage  in 
place  of  the  gods  of  the  old  theology  ;  morality  in  place  of  ritual- 
ism ;  a  popular  doctrine  of  righteousness  in  place  of  scholasticism ; 
a  monastic  rule  in  place  of  isolated  anchoret  life  ;  and  a  cosmopol- 
itan spirit  in  place  of  the  old  national  exclusiveness." 

That  the  strife  of  ecclesiastical  Brahmanism  against 
Buddhist  reform  must  have  been  the  main  fact 

Signs  of 

peaceful  dis- of  Hindu  history  after  the  sixth  century  B.C. 
cussion.  Yvouid  .seem  to  be  obvious.  Yet  there  is  no 
positive  record  of  its  being  stained  with  bloodshed ; 
and  what  little  we  do  know  of  the  far-away  thousand 
years  of  Buddhist  history  in  India  but  confirms  our 
faith  that  these  preachers  of  peace  and  love  knew  how 
to  master  the  world  by  fulfilling  their  own  precepts ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  Brahmanical  party 
appealed  to  violence  to  put  down  the  heretical  sect, 
they  have  destroyed  all  evidences  of  the  fact.  The 
Greek  writers,  who  are  our  main  authorities  for  the 
state  of  Indian  society  from  the  time  of  Alexander 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  675 

down  to  the  Christian  era,  give  no  hint  of  strife  be- 
tween the  two  forms  of  faith. 

Their  descriptions  of  the  religious  caste,  or  class, 
apply  to  the  Buddhists  as  fairly  as  to  the  Brahmans; 
in  some  respects,  even  better.  Arrian,  for  instance, 
reports  that  it  was  open  to  all  who  chose  to  enter  it ; l 
which  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  Brahmanical  ex- 
clusiveness  had  quite  given  way  to  Buddhistic  liberty. 
Nearchus,  a  companion  of  Alexander,  relates  that 
women  took  part  in  the  philosophical  discussions  of 
the  Brahmans ;  and  this  fact  again  would  seem  to 
bring  the  two  religions  upon  common  ground.  Strabo 
simply  speaks  of  the  Pramnce,  a  "  disputatious  [ration- 
alistic] "  sect  opposed  to  the  Brahmans.2  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  in  the  second  century,  describes  both  by 
name,  but,  again,  without  intimation  of  hostility  be- 
tween them.3  Coming  down  to  the  fifth  century  after 
Christ,  we  have  the  testimony  of  the  "Chinese  Pilgrim," 
Fahian,4  followed  by  that  of  Hiouen  Thsang  in  the 


1  Hist.  Ind.,  XII. 

2  De  Situ  Orbis,  XV.     Pramafiam  is  logical  proof,  as  opposed  to  revelation. 
8  Stromata,  I.  c.  XV- 

*  Three  Chinese  Buddhists,  Fahian,  Soungyun,  and  Hiouen  Thsang,  traversed  India  at 
intervals  of  about  one  hundred  years ;  and  the  information  they  afford  us  of  the  religious 
condition  of  that  country  from  the  fifth  to  the  seventh  century  is  of  the  highest  value.  The 
destruction  of  Buddhist  works  in  the  Chinese  civil  wars  led  to  the  mission  of  Fahian,  which 
lasted  fifteen  years,  and  covered  thirty  kingdoms  (including  a  visit  to  Ceylon),  all  of  which 
he  describes  with  great  simplicity  and  fidelity,  especially  whatever  was  consecrated  by 
Buddhist  tradition.  His  great  work,  the  Fokoueki,  is  of  the  highest  reputation  in  China  ; 
and  the  pious  zeal  that  sustained  him  through  great  and  continual  perils  places  him  beside 
the  most  devoted  apostles  of  other  faiths.  His  wonderful  record  has  been  brought  before 
the  western  world  by  the  labors  of  Remusat,  Landresse,  and  Beal,  and  is  of  inestimable 
value  as  a  source  of  light  on  the  progress  of  Buddhism,  and  as  an  epoch  in  Hindu  history 
otherwise  wholly  in  the  dark.  Of  equal  importance  is  the  pilgrimage  of  Hiouen  Thsang; 
whom  similar  Buddhistic  needs  in  China  sent  forth  in  like  manner,  to  the  holy  places  of  his 
faith,  to  obtain  its  sacred  books  and  learn  its  fortunes.  The  result  was  a  more  detailed,  as 
well  as  a  more  extended,  description  than  Fabian's ;  comprehending  the  whole  of  India, 
covering  nearly  twenty  years  of  time  (a.c.  630-650),  and  more  than  a  hundred  distinct  states, 
of  which  he  sought  to  give  a  full  account,  geographical,  social,  political,  historical,  and  re- 
ligious. His  zeal  in  collecting  sacred  writings  was  prodigious.  He  is  said  to  have  returned 
to  China  with  no  less  than  six  hundred  books,  translations  of  which  were  carefully  made 


676  BUDDHISM. 

seventh ;  between  which  two  epochs  Brahmanism 
seems  to  have  been  gradually  advancing,  though  in 
no  wise  gaining  the  day  over  Buddhism.  But  Fahian 
does  not  speak  of  any  thing  like  open  collision  be- 
tween these  religions.  He  finds  the  worship  of  Budd- 
ha everywhere  flourishing ;  nearly  all  the  kings  of 
northern  India  honoring  his  priests,  whose  temples 
were  magnificent,  and  whose  numbers  were,  as  Soung- 
yun  afterwards  describes  them,  like  "the  gathering  of 
clouds."  The  Brahmans  were  "  heretics,"  but,  except 
in  Java,  not,  as  a  whole,  offering  serious  resistance  to  the 
true  faith.  He  even  mentions  the  adoration  of  Buddha 
by  Brahmans  of  "great  wisdom  and  purity,"  in  the 
old  time,  and  ascribes  to  them  zeal  in  the  preservation 
of  his  relics ;  nowhere  speaking  of  their  heresy  with 
bitterness  or  hatred.  Soungyun  did  not  hesitate  to  go 
to  the  Brahmans  to  obtain  charms  for  the  relief  of  his 
mind.  And,  in  Hiouen  Thsang's  time,  the  two  re- 
ligions were  side  by  side  in  all  northern  India,  that  of 
Gotama  greatly  in  the  ascendent.  Still  no  report  is 
given  of  any  thing  like  physical  strife ;  though  the 
zealous  apostle,  upheld  by  Buddhist  kings,  found 
plenty  of  opponents,  and  gained  great  glory  in  refut- 
ing them.  These  opponents  were  in  fact  for  the  most 
part  not  Brahmans  at  all,  but  Buddhists  like  himself, 
though  of  a  different  school.     And  it  is  on  their  heresy 


and  preserved  by  imperial  command.  No  reader  of  his  life  and  labors  can  withhold  admira- 
tion of  the  singleness  and  purity  of  their  purpose,  however  clouded  by  superstition,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  spirit  in  which  he  investigates  the  beliefs  of  others.  He  was  as  familiar  with 
the  writings  of  the  Brahmans  as  with  those  of  his  own  faith,  and  as  carefully  collected  them 
for  the  enlightenment  of  his  countrymen.  St.  Hilaire  calls  him  one  of  the  "elect  souls  in 
history,  few  of  whom  have  been  able  to  carry  disinterestedness  so  far  towards  that  limit 
where  nothing  is  known  but  the  pure  idea  of  goodness."  The  substance  of  his  record  has 
recently  been  translated  by  Stanislas  Julien.  These  "  Chinese  Pilgrims  "  must  hereafter  be 
the  main  authorities,  as  regards  both  mythology  and  history,  for  the  period  just  preced- 
ing the  revival  of  Brahmanism  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Buddhists  from  India. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  677 

that  he  lays  most  emphasis,   apparently  holding  the 
Brahmans  as  of  smaller  account. 

But  the  most  noticeable  feature  of  the  relations  of 
these  different  faiths  in  the  time  of  Hiouen  Thsang  is 
the  absolute  toleration  and  even  mutual  respect  with 
which  their  controversies  were  conducted.  They  were 
in  no  sense  a  war  of  passions,  but  a  sober  and  peace- 
ful discussion,  and  bear  the  marks  of  an  enlightened 
love  of  free  inquiry  and  faith  in  its  results.  A  "king 
of  kings,"  we  are  told,  assembles  the  rulers  who  paid 
him  tribute,  and  representatives  of  all  the  different 
religions  in  his  dominions,  together  with  the  orphans 
and  the  poor,  upon  a  "  Great  Field  of  Alms."  There 
he  celebrates  a  high  festival,  at  which  vast  treasures 
were  distributed,  according  to  Buddhist  custom,  among 
the  needy.  First  the  various  forms  of  worship  were 
solemnly  inaugurated  in  due  order,  by  their  respective 
disciples,  on  successive  days,  with  equal  respect  from 
all.  Next  came  distribution  of  gifts  to  the  poor  of 
ea£h,  in  proportion  to  their  numbers, — to  the  Budd- 
hists, the  Brahmans,  the  heretics,  the  mendicants  of  far 
countries.  This  prodigal  charity  is  described  as  last- 
ing for  weeks ;  its  care  for  the  most  indigent  and 
friendless  classes,  alone,  occupying  a  full  month.  The 
same  monarch,  Siladitya,  holds  a  grand  religious  con- 
ference at  which  two  thousand  Brahmans  are  present, 
and  free  opportunity  is  given  to  all  advocates.  At  this 
the  ardent  Hiouen  Thsang  himself  presides,  is  pro- 
tected against  personal  enemies  by  the  determination 
of  the  king  to  see  fair  play,  and  makes  many  converts 
to  his  own  belief.  The  Brahmans,  however,  do  not 
seem  to  have  entered  the  lists,  to  any  great  extent,  in 
these  controversies.  Their  religion,  we  should  infer 
from  Hiouen  Thsang,  had  but  little  hold  on  the  people  ; 


678  BUDDHISM. 

and  Buddhism  was  still  in  the  full  confidence  of  a  fixed 
supremacy,  which  its  principles  forbade  it  to  use  in  a 
spirit  of  persecution.  This  real  mastery  of  the  Hindu 
mind  it  had  maintained,  according  to  these  excellent 
Chinese  apostles,  for  the  whole  ten  or  twelve  centu- 
ries since  the  ascension  of  Buddha  into  nirvana.  And, 
during  all  this  period,  we  have,  in  fact,  no  record  of 
hostile  relations  with  Brahmanism.  Yet  within  a 
very  short  period  of  Hiouen  Thsang's  mission,  certainly 
not  more  than  two  or  three  centuries,  Buddhism,  as  a 
distinctive  faith,  appears  to  have  been  expelled  from 
India,  and  its  followers  dispersed  into  such  other  lands 
as  had  proved  accessible  to  their  principles.1  How  far 
this  was  owing  to  a  revival  of  Brahmanism  in  the 
ninth  century  by  its  great  leader,  Sankara  Acharya, 
and  how  far  to  differences  between  Buddhism  and 
other  sects  like  the  Jainas,  into  whom  its  free  spirit 
had  passed,  is  not  easy  to  determine.  But  it  is  a 
singular  phenomenon,  in  view  of  our  Chinese  account 
of  the  firm  position  of  the  faith  but  a  few  centuries 
before,  and  of  the  peaceful  hold  it  had  maintained 
from  the  beginning. 

This  remarkable  record  of  an  almost  undisputed 
Doubtfuiin-  ascendency  has  led  to  the  inference  that 
ferences.  Buddhism  was  in  fact  the  older  religion  of  the 
two  ;  and  that  the  strict  Brahmanical  church  is  but  of 
recent  growth,  originating  mainly  in  the  movement  of 
Sankara  Acharya.2  There  are  evidences  that  caste  at 
least  did  not  stand  organized  on  strict  Brahmanical 
principles  during  many  centuries  subsequent  to  Buddha. 
Thus  Arrian's  account  of  the  classes  does  not  at  all 
correspond  with  these  principles.     Fahian   describes 

1  Lassen,  IV.  708. 

2  Sykes,  R   A.  Journal,  vol.  vi.     Wilson,  Introd-  to  Vishnu  Parana. 


ETHICS    AND    HUMANITIES.  679 

the  four  classes1  in  Ceylon  as  gathering  to  hear  the  law 
of  Buddha  three  times  a  month.  He  found  countries 
whose  kings  were  Sudras.  The  oldest  inscriptions 
in  India  are  Buddhist,  and  the  oldest  coins  too  are 
marked  with  Buddhist  symbols.  Prinsep  satisfied 
himself  that  the  earliest  monarchs  of  India  are  not 
associated  with  Brahmanical  creeds  or  dynasties. 
Finally,  to  justify  the  inference  that  Brahmanism  was 
of  late  origin,  the  Laws  of  Manu  have  been,  though 
on  insufficient  evidence,  brought  down  to  a  recent  date, 
or,  perhaps  more  correctly,  referred  to  a  small  tract  of 
country  inhabited  by  an  isolated  body  of  priests. 

Although    this  reasoning  would  seem  to  carry  us  too 
far,  it  must  at  least  be  allowed  that  Buddhistic    „    . 

Results. 

liberty  is  traceable  far  back  in  Hindu  history, 
beyond  the  era  of  Buddha ;  though  not  distinctly  visi- 
ble as  a  special  religious  movement  till  after  Brah- 
manical ideas  and  even  institutions  had  been  developed 
out  of  the  study  of  the  Vedas  in  the  hands  of  a  priest- 
hood. As  for  the  four  castes  of  the  orthodox  system, 
we  have  seen  that  it  is  doubtful  if  they  ever  had  posi- 
tive and  permanent  reality  as  a  social  organization,  in 
the  strict  form  in  which  they  stand  in  the  ancient 
codes  ;  and  that  from  the  beginning  they  were  subject 
to  continual  interference  and  modification  from  im- 
pulses of  freedom  and  humanity. 

It  is  to  be  observed  also  that  the  word  "Buddha"  must 
be  as  old  as  "Brahman."  Both  are  primeval,  Buddha  and 
and  grew  up  together,  I  am  inclined  to  be-  Brahman- 
lieve,  as  expressions  respectively  for  the  rational,  or 
human  side  of  religion,  and  for  the  supernal,  or  divine. 
The  one  stands  for  knowledge,  the  other  for  prayer. 
Both   these    tendencies   of   course    entered    into    the 

1  Beal  {Tratislation,  p.  155)  supposes  that  classes  of  believers  are  here  meant. 


680  BUDDHISM. 

substance  of  the  faith  which  preceded  Gotama ;  and, 
at  whatever  special  epochs  the  one  or  the  other  may 
have  ripened  into  a  definite  system,  the  elements  of 
the  two  great  religions  of  India  are  united  by  mutual 
interaction  at  every  step  in  the  history  of  the  national 
mind. 


IV. 
THE     HOUR    AND    THE    MAN. 


THE     HOUR    AND    THE    MAN. 


'T^HE  name  "  Buddha "  is  derived  from  the  root 
-*-  budk,  to  know,  and  means  "enlightened,"  Name  and 
"wakened  out  of  dreams  into  certainty."  Its  date- 
wide  currency,  both  in  history  and  mythology,1  indi- 
cates great  energy  of  spiritual  reaction  amidst  the 
inertia  of  Oriental  faith.  It  was  the  name  for  mind 
in  all  Hindu  philosophy,  and  the  title  of  honor  given 
to  the  sa^e.  In  the  Brahmanical  as  well  as  the  Budd- 
histic  writings,  this  is  a  common  term  for  sainthood.2 
"The  Buddha,"  like  "the  Christ,"  is  thus  not  a  per- 
sonal name,  but  an  official  title ;  yet  conveying  a  less 
exclusive  sense  than  the  latter  word  has  received  from 
Christendom,  being  applied  to  innumerable  ideal  per- 
sonages, a  series  reaching  through  incalculable  time. 

This  latitude  in  the  use  of  the  name  is  one  cause  of 
the  differences  among  Buddhists  themselves,  as  to  the 
epoch  of  the  special  Buddha  to  whom  the  Hindu  relig- 
ious reformation  is  referred.  The  Thibetans  have  as 
many  as  fourteen  accounts  of  the  time  of  his  death, 
ranging  between  2422  B.C.  and  546  B.C.  The  Chi- 
nese and  Japanese  insist  on  the  tenth  century,  and  the 
Singhalese  on  the  sixth.  This  last  date  (543  b.c.) 
substantiated  by  an  agreement    among   the   southern 

1  Pococke,  India  in  Greece.  2  Weber,  Varies.,  pp.  27,  161. 


684  BUDDHISM. 

Buddhists,  has  been  generally  accepted  by  European 
scholars  as  approximately  correct.1  Yet  Muller  and 
Lassen  have  shown  that  dogmatic  requirements,  re- 
puted prophecies,  and  other  errors,  have  had  much  to 
do  with  fixing  the  recognized  dates,  after  all. 

His  Sutras  (sentences  or  discourses)  were  collected 
Writtea  after  his  death  by  the  earliest  synod  of  his  fol- 
records.  lowers.2  But  these  have  been  to  an  extent 
recast  by  somewhat  later  hands,  and  Muller  believes 
that  the  story  of  Buddhism  down  to  its  political 
triumph,  in  the  third  century  B.C.,  was  supplied  out 
of  the  heads  of  its  disciples  in  that  epoch,  rather 
than  from  authentic  records.3  Yet,  in  common  with 
other  scholars,  he  regards  the  substance  of  the  oldest 
Sutras  as  good  material  for  history,  accepting  the 
main  features  of  their  report  of  Gotama,  notwith- 
standing Professor  Wilson's  skepticism  even  as  to  his 
existence.4  St.  Hilaire,  following  the  Lalitavistara, 
one  of  the  earliest  works  of  the  canon,5  for  the  period 
of  his  youth,  and  combining  various  Sutras  with  the 
reports  of  the  "Chinese  Pilgrims"  for  that  of  his 
ministry,  has  endeavored  to  separate  truth  from  fiction, 
"and  to  present  a  life  of  the  reformer  free  from  mytho- 
logical additions, — just  as  Baur,  Renan,  Schenkel, 
and  others,  have  sought  to  eliminate  similar  tributes  of 
the  religious  imagination  from  the  records  of  the  life 
of  Jesus.  It  is  manifest,  however,  that  there  are  even 
greater  difficulties  in  the  way  of  this  effort  than  in  that 
of  extracting  pure  history  from  the  Christian  gospels. 


1  Lassen,  II.  57-60;  St.  Hilaire;  Burnouf;  Weber,  Varies.,  p.  251.     Muller  says  477 
B.C.     See  Sansk.  Lit-\  pp.  260-301. 

2  Koeppen,  II.  10;  Lassen,  II.  8.  3  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  260. 
*  Sansk.  Lit.,  79,  82  ;  Chips,  I.  217,  219. 

6  Dating  beyond  all  question  earlier  than  the  Christian  era  (St.  Hil.,  fntrod.,xiv.;  Muller, 
Chips,  I   205),  and  translated  out  of  Sanskrit  into  Chinese  in  the  first  century  of  our  era 


THE    HOUR    AND    THE    MAN.  685 

Of  the  use  of  writing  for  religious  purposes  in  the 
earliest  ages   of  Buddhism,  we   have    no  evi-    __.. 

o  Writing. 

dence.  The  traditions  of  the  first  three  coun- 
cils do  not  mention  it,  and  the  monumental  edicts  of 
Asoka,  which  belong  to  the  third  century  B.C.,  are  the 
oldest  inscriptions  as  yet  found  in  India.  "The  Tri- 
■pitaka,  or  Three  Baskets"  (the  Buddhist  Gospels)  — 
comprising  Sutras  (discourses),  Vinaya  (discipline), 
and  Abhidharma  (metaphysics)  —  current  in  the  Pali 
language  in  Ceylon,  contains  much  of  the  oral  tra- 
dition of  the  oldest  times ;  but  it  cannot  be  referred  as 
a  whole  to  a  period  previous  to  the  time  of  Asoka. 
Of  more  marked  originality  is  the  Nepalese  collection, 
written  in  Sanskrit,  and  in  corresponding  though  not 
identical  divisions.  Much  of  this  also  shows  signs 
of  elaboration,  only  possible  in  an  advanced  stage  of 
monastic  life.1  The  Pali  history  of  Ceylon  refers  the 
Tripitaka  to  the  close  of  the  "period  of  inspiration  " 
(106-74,  B.C.).  The  Dhammapada  bears  stronger 
marks  of  originality,  and  its  sentences  are  evidently 
collected  from  primitive  sources.  They  answer  to  the 
logia,  which  Matthew  is  reported  in  early  Christian 
traditions  to  have  preserved,  and  which,  so  far  as  they 
are  discoverable  in  the  gospel  now  bearing  his  name, 
must  form  our  earliest  data  for  the  life  of  Jesus. 

That  other  enlightened  persons  received  the  ven- 
erated name  of  "  Buddha "  in  earlier  times,  and  in 
regions  north  of  India,  is  very  probable.  The  theory 
of  Buddhism  affirms  an  "  apostolic  succession,"  de- 
scending from  remotest  ages  ;  and  Gotama  himself  is 
quoted  in  proof   of   it.     The   name   Tathdgata   con- 


1  Burnouf,  p.  125;  Wassiljew,  Le  Bouddhisme,  p-  19;  Pillon,  in  ISAnnte  Philoso- 
phique  for  186S,  p.  378-382  ;  Miiller,  Chips,  I.  196 ;  Sanks.  Lit.,  p.  520 ;  Feer  in  Journal 
Asiatique  for  1S67  and  1S70. 


686  BUDDHISM. 

stantly  given  him  signifies  "  he  who  has  pursued  the 
path  of  his  predecessors."  Fahian  reports  three  earlier 
Buddhas,  describes  a  tower  in  Oude,  where  the  relics 
of  one  of  them  were  preserved,  and  even  quotes  here- 
tics who  rejected  Gotama  in  the  name  of  these  earlier 
saints.  He  was  supposed  to  have  chosen  the  special 
scene  of  his  labors  in  accordance  with  a  proverb  that 
"  a  Buddha  must  always  be  turning  the  wheel  of  the 
law  at  Benares."1 

Whatever  becomes  of  the  claims  of  Buddhism  to 
an  ancient  "apostolic  succession,"  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  distinctive  revolution  in  Hindu  thought, 
we  are  now  describing,  was  embodied  in  a  real  re- 
former;  and  that  his  moral  traits,  if  not  his  words 
and  actions,  have  been,  on  the  whole,  truly  handed 
down  by  his  earliest  disciples,  whose  testimonies  on 
this  point  substantially  agree.2 

They  report  him  a  prince  of  the  royal  race  of  the 
Personal  Sakyas,  and  the  great  solar  race  of  the  Go- 
traditions.  tamas  ; —  a  truly  "Messianic"  origin.  He  is 
born  at  Kapilavastu,  a  city  of  Magadha,  the  centre  of 
heroic  and  sacred  legend.  His  true  name  is  said  to 
have  been  Siddhdrta,  "the  victorious;"  but  this  is 
more  probably  a  later  title  of  honor,  like  Buddha, 
given  him  by  disciples.  At  the  age  of  thirty,  oppressed 
by  the  sense  of  human  misery  from  disease,  old  age,  and 
death,  and  the  transiency  of  all  things,  and  absorbed 
by  the  longing  to  deliver  mankind  from  these  evils 
and  the  successive  future  births  which  involved  their 
return,  he  abdicates  all  his  royal  rights,  escapes  with 
difficulty  from  his  father's  court,  exchanges  his  robes 

1  Accessible  authorities  are,  for  northern  Buddhism,  Beal's  Buddhist  Pilgrims,  Bur- 
noufs  Lotus  de  la  Botuie  Loi,  and  Foucaux's  Lalitavistara;  and  for  southern,  Tumour's 
Mahavansa. 

a  Lassen,  II.  65-75;  St.  Hilaire,  ch.  1;  Duncker,  II.  1S0. 


THE    HOUR    AND    THE    MAN.  687 

for  the  dress  of  a  woodsman,  and  gives  himself  up  to 
meditation.  He  studies  at  the  feet  of  renowned  Brah- 
mans,  but  soon  exhausts  the  wisdom  of  their  Brah- 
manas  and  Upanishads  ;  yet  consents  to  try  the  ascetic 
path,  and  pursues  its  disciplines  for  six  years,  attended 
by  five  Brahman  disciples.  But,  after  confounding 
all  teachers  and  overcoming  all  temptations,  he  is 
no  nearer  content :  the  way  is  not  found.  Not  so  is 
human  misery  to  be  met,  not  so  to  be  followed  to  its 
root.  To  waste  the  body  does  not  enlighten  the 
mind.  He  abandons  fasting  and  penance,  to  the  horror 
of  his  Brahman  followers,  who  flee  from  his  blooming 
countenance,  as  if  it  proved  him  possessed  by  an  evil 
spirit.  Refreshed  by  food,  he  reclines  on  a  carpet 
of  grass-blades  under  one  of  those  mystical  fig-trees, 
or  j)ipj)alas,  whose  heart-shaped  leaves,  attached  to 
slender  stalks,  and  shivering  in  the  lightest  breeze, 
seem  to  have  been  suggestive  to  the  Hindu  of  the 
fluctuation  of  all  outward  things ;  resolved  never  to 
rise  again  till  the  way  of  emancipation  shall  have  be- 
come plain ;  and  there,  motionless  for  a  day  and  a 
night,  a  silent,  waiting  mind,  he  receives  at  daybreak 
the  illumination  which  makes  him  the  "Awakened 
One."  He  is  now  hot  only  "Sakyamuni,"  the  Her- 
mit-prince, but  a  "Buddha"  of  salvation. 

Yet  he  is  overwhelmed  at  the  thought  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  task  before  him.     To  teach   thoughtless 

cD 

and  ignorant  multitudes  that  ignorance  and  thought- 
lessness were  the  root  of  all  evil ;  to  lead  their  minds 
through  the  long  chain-work  of  causes  and  effects,  be- 
ginning with  "  ignorance"  and  ending  in  the  woes  of 
existence, — by  appreciation  of  which  they  could  free 
themselves  into  the  path  of  nirvana,  seems  impossible  ; 
and  he  despairs.     But  all  nature  and  soul  hasten  to 


688  BUDDHISM. 

animate  and  urge  forward  the  redeeming  power  for 
which  they  long.  The  very  gods,  Brahma  and  Indra, 
all  that  men  have  trusted  in,  confess  their  own  defect, 
and  entreat  him  to  take  courage  and  reveal  the  mighty 
secret  of  release. 

His  early  preaching  in  Magadha  is  a  failure.  The 
Sutras  tell  of  sixty  days  of  doubts,  temptations,  exalta- 
tions, discouragements ;  of  the  celebrated  doctors  to 
whom  he  appealed  in  vain ;  of  the  outcry  of  heresy, 
and  even  insanity,  that  arose  against  him  ;  of  the  ne- 
cessity to  leave  his  own  country,  where  he  had  no 
honor,  and  "  turn  the  wheel  of  the  law "  at  the  holy 
city  of  Varanasi  (Benares). 

From  this  moment  all  is  victory  :  all  things  are  pre- 
pared for  him.  Kings  greet  him  with  honor,  and 
provide  structures  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith  ; 
and  the  people  rejoice  in  the  waters  of  life  at  last 
dispensed  freely. 

The  world  is  renewed  by  this  gospel  revealed  in  the 
stillness  of  meditation,  this  solution  of  the  problem  of 
human  misery  by  freedom,  thoughtfulness,  and  love. 
We  see  the  man  who  has  dethroned  the  gods,  for  forty 
years  journeying  through  northern  India,  preaching 
and  reforming,  clearing  men's  minds  and  opening  their 
hearts  and  doing  wonderful  works  ;  converting  kings, 
saints,  and  scholars,  and  drawing  the  multitudes  by  the 
charm  of  his  personal  appearance  and  intercourse,  his 
eloquence  and  his  matchless  virtues. 

In  his  eightieth  year  he  remembers  that  it  is  the 
time  appointed  for  him  to  enter  into  nirvdna;  predicts 
to  his  disciples  that  in  three  months  he  shall  be  taken 
from  them ;  consoles  their  sorrow ;  admonishes  them 
to  fresh  zeal,  and  bids  them  gather  up  his  precepts 
when  he  is  gone,  and  proclaim  them  to  the  whole 


THE    HOUR    AND    THE    MAN.  689 

world.  At  the  appointed  time  and  place,  he  dies  in  a 
holy  grove,  surrounded  by  his  chosen  apostles,  exhort- 
ing them  "  to  remember  that  all  things  are  passing 
away,  and  to  prepare  themselves  quickly  for  what  is 
imperishable."  They  in  turn  promise  that  they  will 
preach  his  word  fearlessly,  enduring  to  the  end.1 
After  the  burning  of  his  body,  the  strife  of  eight 
kings  for  his  relics  is  appeased  only  by  Ananda's  ad- 
monition to  remember  the  spirit  of  the  master,  and  by 
their  distribution  among  the  whole. 

The  legend  of  Gotama  follows  the  great  common 
track  of   Oriental   inspiration,  familiar  in   its  Analogies 
general  features  to  all  students  of  Comparative  of  B^dh,st 

O  -T  and  Lnns- 

Religion  ;  though  in  his  case  profusely  heaped  tian  legend. 
with  the  flowers  of  a  tropical  fancy.  Its  resemblance 
to  the  New  Testament  mythology,  limited  of  course 
by  contrasts  of  style  and  detail  growing  out  of  the  dif- 
ference of  race,  is  yet  sufficient  to  show  decisively 
that  the  elements  available  for  the  mythopoeic  faculty 
in  different  religions  are  substantially  the  same.  We 
have  the  story2  of  the  Buddha's  celestial  choice  to  enter 
the  world  for  its  salvation  ;  of  his  strict  fulfilment  of  all 
the  fore-ordained  conditions  necessary  to  meet  the  ideal 
of  Buddhahood,  as  to  nationality,  family,  times  and 
places  of  birth,  and  ministry  ;  of  his  mother's  vir- 
ginity, and  the  descent  of  the  divine  child  into  her 
bosom,  approaching  her  in  the  form  of  a  white  ele- 
phant bearing  a  lily,  thus  taking  up  into  this  nativity 
consecration  the  life  of  the  beasts  and  the  flowers, — 
and  of  his  birth  amidst  joyful  adoration  by  all  divine 
powers  and  the  transfiguration  of  nature  to  welcome 
redeeming  soul ;  of  the  saint  who  discerns  upon  him 
the  manifold   marks  of  incarnation,  and  rejoices  and 

1  Lotus,  p.  165.  2  See  Burnouf,  St.  Hilaire,  and  Hardy. 

44 


69O  BUDDHISM. 

weeps  by  turns  as  he  describes  the  long-looked-for 
glory  he  has  been  privileged,  so  far,  to  behold;  of  the 
perfections  of  his  childhood ;  of  his  six  years'  fasting 
in  the  wilderness ;  of  his  conflicts  with  the  spirit  of 
evil,  Mara,  who  comes  to  test  his  pretensions,  and 
dissuade  him  from  his  purpose  by  bribes  and  terrors, 
and  even  by  armed  hosts,  whose  weapons,  as  they 
rain  upon  the  firm  heart  and  will,  are  turned  to  flow- 
ers ;  of  his  miraculous  gifts,  used  always  for  beneficent 
ends ;  of  his  controversies  with  the  Brahmans,  who 
sought  in  all  ways  to  overreach,  or  silence,  and  even 
in  some  cases  to  destroy  him  ;  of  his  predictions  and 
exhortations,  relative  to  his  own  death  and  its  conse- 
quences for  mankind ;  of  the  wonders  that  attended 
the  burning  of  his  body,  on  earth  and  through  all  the 
worlds. 

The  seclusion  of  the  Buddhist  monasteries  gave 
opportunity  for  the  growth  of  a  luxuriant  mythology 
about  his  person,  greatly  enlarged  and  enriched  by 
the  wide  geographical  expansion  of  the  faith,  and  the 
division  of  the  believers  into  a  multitude  of  sects. 
Similar  influences  have  produced  analogous  results  on 
the  person  of  "  the  Christ "  in  the  Western  world,  but 
with  a  difference  that  should  be  carefully  noted.  The 
growth  of  legend  about  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus  has 
been  checked  by  the  historic  sense  peculiar  to  West- 
ern civilization,  and  by  the  circulation  of  a  written 
record.  The  mythopoeic  current,  thus  diverted  from 
the  ground  of  his  actual  life,  has  poured  itself,  in  an 
almost  Oriental  flood,  in  the  generation  of  an  ideal,  all- 
pervading  "  Christ,"  or  rather  a  forever-changing  ideal 
of  perfection  ;  bound  somehow  to  get  itself  reconciled, 
however,  with  the  record  of  Jesus  as  its  norm  and 
source,  and   to  remain    so,  constructing  all  spiritual 


THE    HOUR   AND    THE    MAN.  69 1 

symbolism  to  conform  to  this  record,  in  order  that  the 
historical  Jesus  may  be  retained  as  indwelling  life  of 
his  Church.  To  this  personal  ideal,  thus  constructed, 
which  is  put,  like  that  of  Buddha,  in  the  place  of 
deity,  the  Christian  imagination  ascribes  all  past.,  all 
actual,  and  all  hoped-for  good.  The  defect  of  the 
Buddhist  mythology  is  thus  of  a  very  different  char- 
acter from  that  of  the  Christian ;  the  one  consisting  in 
the  absence  of  restraint  by  the  laws  of  historical  ex- 
perience, and  the  other  in  arrest  and  custody  of  the 
spiritual  sense  by  artificial  historic  limits.  The  value 
of  both  is  in  claiming,  up  to  a  certain  point,  spiritual 
and  moral  significance  for  the  natural  world. 

And  here  the  Buddhist  ideal  maintains,  through  all 
the  wild,  rank  license  of  its  fancy,  a  severe  ethical 
purity,  more  surprising  under  such  circumstances, 
than  that  which  has  been  secured  to  the  Christian 
by  the  far  greater  sobriety  of  Semitic  and  European 
imagination. 

The  analogy  in  method  between  the  two  mythologies 
holds,  as  far  back  as  the  records  of  either  allow  us 
to  go.  The  pre-existing  type  of  the  Buddha  life  lay 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  early  Buddhist  Church, 
just  as  the  Messianic  idea  lay  in  that  Hebrew  con- 
sciousness to  which  we  owe  so  much  of  the  earliest 
biography  of  Jesus.  "  The  Buddha  must  perform 
certain  acts,  visit  certain  places  at  certain  times,  work 
certain  prescribed  miracles ; " :  and  it  was  but  the 
natural  tribute  of  faith  to  make  his  biography  accord 
with  these  conditions.  In  all  mythological  construc- 
tion, the  soul  has  made  good  its  own  prophetic  desire, 
more  or  less  freely,  by  the  creative  word,  "This  was 
done  that  it  might  be  fulfilled."     First,  a  few  general 

1  See  Koeppen,  I.  95 ;  St.  Hilaire,  ch.  ii. ;   BeaPs  Buddhist  Pilgrims,  ch.  xxii. 


692  BUDDHISM. 

typical  features  or  moulds  were  supplied  by  the  living 
hope  of  the  age ;  then  these,  .  having  found  some 
personal  centre  round  which  they  could  gather,  were 
wrought  out  by  later  demands  in  the  desired  variety 
and  prodigality  of  product.1 

To  what  extent  the  Founder  of  a  faith  himself  has 
contributed  to  the  development  of  the  pre-existent 
ideal  through  sharing  its  hope,  and  believing  him- 
self appointed  to  fulfil  it,  is  in  all  cases  difficult  to 
determine.  The  remote  life  of  Gotama  of  course 
affords  no  exception  to  the  rule. 

The  eighty  apostles  he  is  believed  to  have  sent  forth 
The  hour  to  preach  his  gospel  of  "  mercy  to  all "  are 
andtheman.  proDably  but  a  mythical  expression  of  the 
fact  that  the  age  awaited  it.  The  voice  of  a  com- 
mon aspiration  must  have  been  heard  in  his  appeal, 
as  in  all  gospels  that  have  survived  in  the  faith  of 
generations.  Buddha  represented,  as  did  Jesus  after- 
wards, a  great  demand  of  his  time ;  partly  by  his 
actual  personality,  and  still  more  as  the  centre  of 
that  idealizing  process  by  which  the  demands  of  a 
religious  crisis  know  how  to  create  their  own  satis- 
faction out  of  a  few  ill-defined  and  therefore  plastic 
materials.  Before  describing  this  demand  in  the  in- 
stance of  Buddhism,  there  is  a  word  to  be  said  about 
the  significance  of  this  relation  between  the  Hour  and 
the  Man. 

All  the  historical  religions,  even  Mohammedanism 
significance  and  Christianity,  run  back  to  comparatively 
of  a  great     unnistorical  ages  and  obscure  personal  rela- 

religious  de-  ~  .... 

mand.        tions.     To  say  that  the  more  this  veil  is  re- 

1  Thus  the  legend  associates  with  Buddha's  life  all  the  holy  places  of  northern  India. 
"  He  is  born  at  Kapilavaslu  ;  reaches  perfection  at  Magadha ;  turns  the  wheel  of  the 
Law  at  Varana'i  (Benares);  and  is  freed  from  pain  at  Kaci." 


THE    HOUR    AND    THE    MAN.  693 

moved  from  the  age  of  the  Hindu  reformer,  the 
less  of  that  universal  element  in  Buddhism  that 
makes  it  a  religion  will  be  found  traceable  to  his  ex- 
clusive influence,  and  the  more  to  profound  tendencies 
and  necessities  in  the  life  of  his  epoch  and  his  race, — 
is  but  to  apply  a  universal  law.  The  further  we  pene- 
trate towards  the  apparent  sources  of  any  great  relig- 
ious movement,  the  more  strongly  the  disposition  to 
ascribe  it,  as  a  whole,  to  the  personal  power  of  the 
so-called  "Founder,"  will  be  reproved.  And  this  not 
because  the  initial  impulses  of  great  reformations 
were  not  really  felt  in  the  depths  of  elect  souls,  nor 
because  personal  force  is  of  less  moment  than  we  are 
wont  to  suppose ;  but  because  the  tendency  of  a  relig- 
ious veneration  which  lasts  for  ages  is  to  overlook  or 
depreciate  the  manifold  personal  forces  of  which  a 
great  religious  transition  is  made  up,  in  the  exclusive 
interest  of  one.  All  universal  results  must  come  from 
universal  elements,  and  such  elements  could  only  have 
been  expressed  in  the  infinite  variety  of  characters 
and  aims  that  made  up  the  spirit  of  an  age.  History 
brings  round  this  needed  lesson  in  the  democracy  of 
the  soul,  at  last.  It  will  not  suffer  the  honor  due  to 
human  nature  to  be  for  ever  absorbed  or  monopolized 
by  a  few.  The  progress  of  inquiry  dissipates  these 
illusions  of  distance ;  but  it  is  only  to  substitute  better 
knowledge  of  the  providential  laws. 

This    is    illustrated   in  the   study   of  the  origin  of 
Christianity.     What  have  been  loosely  called  origin  of 
mere   "  preparations    for   the    coming    of   the  Christianity- 
Lord"1  are  found  to  have  been  grand  creative  instincts 

1  Even  Miiller  occasionally  expresses  such  partialism,  which  seems  out  of  accord  with 
his  large  culture  and  spiritual  as  well  as  philosophical  insight.  See  Sansk  Lit.,  p.  32 ; 
CIiips\  I.  p.  373. 


694  BUDDHISM. 

in  the  depths  of  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Roman  civiliza- 
tion, moving  millions  more  or  less  definitely  in  one 
and  the  same  direction,  and  shaping  an  ideal,  ready 
to  crown  the  head  which  should  be  conspicuous  enough 
to  attract  its  attention,  yet  obscure  enough  to  baffle 
criticism,  —  these  spiritual  tendencies  of  the  age  se- 
cretly moving  the  teacher  and  his  apostles,  and  de- 
veloping his  religious  genius  for  its  work.  Not  only 
are  the  moral  and  spiritual  truths  he  was  believed 
to  have  imported  into  the  time,  and  even  into  human' 
nature,  found  to  have  been  fermenting  in  the  society 
into  which  he  was  born,  but  that  all-controlling  func- 
tion in  opening  the  new  moral  era  which  has  been 
ascribed  to  his  personal  life  fails  of  historical  evidence. 
His  nobility  and  sweetness  are  seen  to  have  followed 
the  natural  laws  of  human  influence.1  All  the  more 
evident  becomes  the  divine  impulse  that  was  moving 
that  whole  wonderful  age.2 

Thus  inevitably  are  exacted  all  dues  that  have  been 
withheld  from  the  common  nature,  whereof  all 

Individual 

anduniver-  religions  and  their  founders  are  outgrowths. 
sai  claims.  yet  heroism  and  sainthood  are  Hone  the  less 
spontaneous ;  nor  has  genius  the  less  of  individuality 
and  original  power.  And  this  inevitable  absorption 
of  the  personal  centres  of  religious  tradition  into  the 
humanity  of  their  times,  at  the  touch  of  historical  in- 
quiry, can  no  longer  surprise  us  when  we  remember 
that  every  exclusive  claim  has  defrauded  personality 
itself,  by  setting  aside  that  ideal  value  which  belongs 
to  it  in  each  and  every  efficient  human  life. 


1  See,  for  further  illustration  of  these  points,  the  author's  work  on  The  Worship  of 
Je&us  (Boston,  1868). 

2  See  Denis,    Theories  et  Idees    Morales  de   P  Ant  ignite ;    and  Lecky's  European 
Morals. 


THE    HOUR   AND    THE    MAN.  695 

Buddhism  may  have  found  foothold  in  some  strong 
civil  or  political  reaction  against  the  authority 
of  a  priestly  caste.  Of  this  we  have  no  ac-  Buddhism 
count.  But  we  know  that  the  civil  power m 
sustained  the  movement,  and  that  princes  bore  as 
important  a  part  in  propagating  it  as  they  did  in  the 
growth  of  the  Christian  Church  eight  hundred  years, 
and  in  that  of  Protestantism  two  thousand  years,  after- 
wards. We  know  of  Kandragupta,1  the  great  Hindu 
chief,  who  expelled  the  Greeks  from  India  in  the  third 
century  B.C.,  and  conquered  an  empire  which  included 
the  whole  of  Aryavarta,  the  Holy  Land  of  Hindu 
tradition,  and  the  birthplace  of  Gotama  himself,  and 
founded  the  famous  dynasty  of  the  Mauryas  with 
which  the  latter  was  connected  by  subsequent  legend 
as  Sakyamuni ;  that  he  was  of  low  caste,  probably 
a  Sudra,  and  that  his  accession  must  have  given  great 
impulse  to  the  preaching  of  social  equality  in  the  name 
of  religion.  And  we  find  in  his  grandson,  Asoka, 
the  Constantine  of  the  Buddhist  church.  All  ac- 
counts agree  in  reporting  some  of  Gotama's  earliest 
converts  to  have  been  men  of  the  highest  rank  and 
distinction.  Kings  were  his  champions  and  almoners. 
Hiouen  Thsang  saw  the  ruins  of  a  hall  of  conference 
at  Sravasti,  which  had  been  built  for  him  by  the 
king  of  Kosala,  and  tells  of  other  structures  in 
the  midst  of  beautiful  gardens  erected  for  his  public 
preaching  by  men  of  great  wealth  and  benevolence  in 
different  parts  of  northern  India.  The  secular  ele- 
ment could  indeed  hardly  have  been  attracted  by  the 
speculative  principles  of  Buddhism,  which  do  but 
follow  the  Brahmanical  track  into  depths  where  the 
common  mind  could  not  easily  find  food.     But  these 

1  Lassen,  II.  196. 


696  BUDDHISM. 

fine-spun  metaphysics  were  largely  of  later  growth  : 
they  did  not  constitute  its  motive  force.  The  practical 
democratic  tone  of  its  new  preaching,  on  the  other 
hand,  must  have  been  welcomed,  both  by  the  masses 
who  saw  mutual  love  and  service  substituted  for 
priestly  mediation  as  the  path  to  beatitude,  and  by 
the  secular  ^powers,  which  would  greet  a  religion  so 
antagonistic  to  the  rival  caste.  But  we  must  not 
underestimate  the  capacity  of  the  people  to  become 
interested  even  in  speculative  reforms.  Miiller  does 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  "  in  India  less  than  in  any  other 
country  would  people  submit  to  a  monopoly  of  truth ; 
and  the  same  millions  who  were  patiently  bearing  the 
yoke  of  a  political  despotism  threw  off  the  fetters  of 
an  intellectual  tyranny."  We  have  already  seen  that 
the  political  despotism  itself  was  not  so  complete  as 
has  commonly  been  thought. 

The    old    religious    institutions    had    doubtless    lost 
much  of  their  power.1     Brahmanism  was  no 

Roots  of  r 

Buddhism  longer  the  profound  faith  it  had  been ;  or 
m  the  past.   ratiier  jt  was  passmg  mto  the  freer  spirit  of  the 

Upanishad,  an  ever  open  "sitting"  for  new  reve- 
lations. It  had  already  gone  through  many  phases, 
and  its  pantheistic  spirit  left  it  open  in  many  directions 
to  great  freedom  of  speculation.  Its  Brahmanas  and 
Upanishads  abound  in  Buddhistic  terms  and  doctrines.2 
It  is  certain  that  the  reformers  held  its  spiritual  essence 
in  respect.  There  is  good  evidence  that,  as  late  as  the 
time  of  As'oka,  Buddha  was  still  associated  with  it, 
and  regarded  as  in  some  sort  its  pupil.  He  was  a 
sitter  at  the  feet  of  Brahmans,  and  his  earliest  follow- 
ers were  of  that  class.  Famous  Brahman  teachers 
are  associated  with   him   in   both  these  ways.3     The 

1  Lassen,  II  462.  2  Weber,  Vorles-,  p.  249.  3  Ibid. 


THE    HOUR   AND   THE    MAN.  697 

oldest  Sutras  seek  to  ennoble  the  name  of  Brahman. 
The  Dhammapada,  describing  the  true  Buddhist  saint 
says,  "  Him  call  I  the  true  Brahmana."  Our  amiable 
Chinese  pilgrims  bear  no  malice  towards  believers 
in  the  older  faith.  Fahian  praises  a  great  Brah- 
manical  teacher.  Hiouen  Thsang  describes  the 
Brahmans  as  "  men  of  spotless  life,  who  make  purity 
the  basis  of  their  doctrine ; "  and  has  other  good 
words  for  them  whenever  he  speaks  of  them  as  a 
whole.1  The  Sutras  represent  Gotama  as  seeking 
to  purify  the  lives  of  many,  whose  doctrine  he  does 
not  assail.  The  Buddhists  seem  indeed  to  have  used 
this  ancient  word  to  convey  the  sense  of  pure  relig- 
ion ;  objecting  to  the  pretence  of  a  technical  Brah- 
manic  priesthood  to  appropriate  it.  It  has  on  their 
lips  a  certain  ancestral  sanctity,  in  view  of  which  such 
ecclesiastical  pretensions  were  childish  :  so  that  one 
cannot  well  avoid  the  belief  that  we  are  here  dealing 
with  one  of  those  simplest  and  most  natural  terms  for 
the  inward  life,  which,  like  our  own  words,  God  and 
Nature,  overpass  special  creeds,  and  associate  the 
speaker  with  the  whole  religious  experience  of  his 
people.  Even  while  deposing  Brahma  himself  as 
special  deity,  the  Buddhist  would  seem  to  have  held 
fast  to  the  old  significance  of  this  root-word  of  re- 
ligion. "Buddhism,"  says  Max  Miiller,  "was  origi- 
nally but  a  modification  of  Brahmanism,  and  grew 
slowly  up  to  the  position  of  a  rival  and  opposing  sys- 
tem."2 The  statement  may  easily  be  strengthened  by 
the  analogies  of  history.  Christianity  was,  in  its  ori- 
gin, a  form  of  Judaism.  The  continuity  of  religious 
life    is    steadily    maintained    through    all    transitions. 

1  Mem.  des  Voy.  de  Hiouen  Thsang,  I.  76,  80. 

2  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  262. 


698  BUDDHISM. 

There  is  no  "  supernatural "  violation  of  this  sacred 
sanity  of  growth. 

But  there  was  other  soil  than  that  of  distinctive 
Brahmanism  to  quicken  the  new  tree.  We  have  seen 
that  rationalistic  reactions  had  already,  before  the 
time  of  Buddha,  combined  with  the  introspective 
tendencies  of  Hindu  thought,  as  in  Kapila.  Budd- 
hism inherited  largely  from  the  Sankhya,  and  was,  in 
the  main,  a  democratic  use  of  its  speculative  belief.1 
The  rise  of  new  divinities  in  the  faith  of  the  people, 
such  as  the  worship  of  Krishna  Vishnu,2  and  the  re- 
action of  aboriginal  beliefs  on  the  language,  social 
habits,  and  religious  sentiment  of  the  Aryan  con- 
querors,—  must  have  weakened  the  hold  of  Brahma, 
as  an  exclusive  conception  of  deity.  The  practical  faith 
of  the  people  has  at  all  times  exerted  an  influence 
on  contemporaneous  forms  of  philosophy ;  and  even 
Hindu  abstractions  were  not  free  from  this  social 
accountability. 

The  most  impressive  fact  in  Indian  Buddhism  is 
a  complete  dethronement  of  the  old  deities  in 

And  in  * 

♦Aryan  char- the  name  of  (buddhi)  human  intelligence. 
The  legend  shows  these  elder  gods  kneeling 
around  the  mother  of  Gotama,  at  his  birth,  in  homage 
to  a  Human  Life  that  brought  with  it  a  profounder 
insight  than  their  own.  This  secularist  courage  of  the 
Buddhist  lay  in  his  ethnic  descent.  To  hold  special 
conceptions  and  names  of  deity  in  abeyance  to  the 
energies  of  mind  was  but  a  phase  of  that  self-reliance 
which  determines  all  forms  of  activity  in  Aryan  races. 
Not  only  has  there  been  in  them  all  a  heroic  element 
that  dared  to  lift  itself  to  the  level  of  recognized  divin- 
ities ;  not  only  do  all  their  epics  delight  to  exalt  the 

1  Weber,  hid.  Siud.,  I.  434.  2  Lassen,  II.  464. 


THE    HOUR   AND    THE    MAN.  699 

interest  of  human  strife  by  bringing  in  the  immortals 
to  share  the  perils  and  bear  the  fortunes  of  the  day  : 
this  challenge  to  the  Pantheon  in  the  clash  of  Aryan 
arms  was  natural  for  bold  and  ardent  races  ;  the  gods 
of  the  hero  are  ever  provisional.  But  there  was  a 
like  instinct  of  self-affirmation  in  the  religious  element 
also.  It  divinized  the  authority  of  truth,  as  Thought; 
and  this,  for  the  more  introversive  qualities  of  Aryan 
mind,  would  mean  truth  as  contemplation,  or  devotion. 
And  so  the  unsteadily  seated  Vedic  and  Brahmanical 
deities  were  amenable  to  a  force  more  potent  than 
the  Kshattriya's  sword.  It  was  the  very  force  by 
which  they  had  earned  their  thrones.  That  concen- 
tration of  mind  on  the  eternal  by  reaction  from  the 
transient,  which,  as  represented  in  them,  constituted 
their  deity,  continued  to  hold  them  responsible  to  itself. 
It  was  an  idea,  a  universal  fact  for  ever  seeking  fresh 
expression  and  more  perfect  embodiment.  In  other 
words,  devotion  made  them:  an  intenser  devotion 
could  unmake,  could  supplant  them. 

It  is  not  meant  by  this  statement  that  the  ascetic 
mental  disciplines  themselves,  which  consti-  Dethrone_ 
tuted  the  "devotion"  of  the  Hindu  saint,  were  mem  of  the 
themselves  regarded  as  the  highest  object  of  ° 
worship.  These  subjective  processes  of  the  individ- 
ual were  doubtless,  as  profound  aspirations  always 
are,  lost  to  the  consciousness  by  absorption  in  the 
universal  idea  which  they  pursued.  Thought  in 
itself,  as  spiritual  contemplation,  was  true  deity,  was 
creative  essence  ;  and  the  more  there  was  of  this,  the 
more  of  real  being  and  sovereignty,  which  all  special 
forms  of  existence  must  obey. 

The  rishi  who  shall  surpass  one  of  these  deities  in 
devotion,  who  shall  reach  a  completer  sacrifice  of  im- 


70O  BUDDHISM. 

perfect  desires  and  aims,  shall  dispossess  him  of  the 
divinity  claimed  for  him  ;  and  this  of  course  is  purely 
by  virtue  of  the  divine  itself,  as  always  greater  than 
any  of  its  manifestations.  Thus  all  special  forms  of 
deity  were  subject  to  the  instinct  of  progress,  in  this 
pantheistic  worship  of  contemplation,  this  faith  in  the 
endless  productivity  of  devotion.  The  old  nryth  of  the 
flitr/s,  or  fathers,  curiously  illustrates  what  is  here 
meant.  This  class  of  divine  human  beings  were 
believed  to  be  the  sons  of  the  gods ;  but  placed  above 
them  by  Brahma,  as  having  proved  holier  than  they. 
Thenceforward  they  were  acknowledged  as  fathers  by 
their  own  parents.  Being  more  divine,  they  were 
essentially  older.  Does  not  the  long  procession  of 
religions,  the  line  of  special  names  and  forms  by 
which  man  has  sought  to  express  his  changing 
thought  of  deity,  present  the  same  law  on  a  majestic 
scale?  Ever  the  child  takes  the  father's  place.  The 
newest  authority  stands  for  the  root  of  being  and  of 
history  :  its  very  birth  and  parentage  are  held  to  have 
been  its  own  work.  Man  affirms,  in  every  fresh  en- 
largement of  his  religious  ideal,  somewhat  ancestral 
and  primeval ;  because  it  is  in  its  adequacy  that  the 
problem  of  existence  is  solved  for  him,  and  the  essence 
of  creative  power  revealed.  So  the  older  God  gives 
way  to  the  new  light  from  Man.  And  deity  may  be 
said  to  judge  its  own  past,  as  the  Idea  of  the  Holy 
advances  in  human  consciousness. 

This  is  the  process  of  spiritual  freedom.  In  differ- 
Theiawof  ent  stages  of  development,  its  forms  are  differ- 
liberty.  en^^  jj-g  intelligence  less  or  greater.  But  the 
soul's  mastership  of  its  homestead  is  constantly  as- 
serted in  one  or  another  way;  whether  it  be  (to 
apply  a  distinction  that  has  been  well  drawn)  through 


THE    HOUR    AND    THE    MAN.  701 

the  illusive  aim  of  primitive  speculation  to  coerce 
the  supernatural  powers  which  an  imaginative  faith 
created,  or  through  that  "  command  of  nature  by 
obeying  her  laws  which  is  the  practical  issue  of 
modern  science."1 

Every  step  in  religious  progress  is  a  reaffirmation  of 
the  authority  of  the  ideal  element  in  man,  as  represen- 
tative of  deity,  to  judge  and  reshape  its  conceptions  of 
the  divine.  And,  however  partial  these  conceptions 
may  be,  it  is  through  their  changes  that  we  are  lifted 
beyond  them,  and  know  that  the  Infinite  itself  is 
objectively  real. 

Its  inspiration  of  the  human  faculties,  as  the  Idea 
of  the  Divine,  advances  in  all  Aryan  civilizations  with 
special  freedom,  boldly  substituting  fresh  forms  and 
names  of  deity  for  older  ones,  from  time  to  time  found 
inadequate.  The  speciality  of  the  Hindu  process  is 
that  the  idea  thus  exercising  eminent  domain  in  wor- 
ship is  contemplative.  From  contemplation  and  its 
energies  there  was  in  Indian  faith  no  appeal.  My- 
thology and  ritual  were  constantly  destroyed  and 
reconstructed  by  its  breath.  Ever  dissatisfied  with 
its  own  forms,  it  pressed  on  to  abstraction  more  thor- 
ough and  more  intense ;  as  we  see  not  only  in  the 
difference  between  Brahmanical  and  Buddhistic  specu- 
lation, but  in  the  constant  liability  of  the  deities  to  be 
supplanted  by  a  more  perfect  sainthood.  Yet  it  must 
be  recognized  that  the  abstraction  was  thoroughly 
competent  to  creation  not  only  of  positive  belief,  but 
of  moral  aspiration  and  endeavor.  These  new  masters 
of  faith  and  heaven  are  held  with  singular  strictness  to 
the  validity  of  moral  authority.  Devotees  enter  deity  by 
prayer,  discipline,  and  service ;  and  saints  alarm  the 

1  Westminster  Review  on  "  Magic  and  Astrology"  (January,  1864). 


702  BUDDHISM. 

gods  by  their  virtues,  as  well  as  their  penances,  into 
sending  seductions  and  dissuasives,  such  as  nymphs, 
called  the  weapons  of  Indra,  to  bend  them  from  their 
victorious  march.  Their  imprecations  sway  the  course 
of  nature  and  human  life.1  In  the  Ramayana,  the  poet 
does  not  hesitate  to  make  the  older  gods  contempt- 
ible through  their  immoralities  ;  while  Vishnu  only,  the 
later  deity  who  had  supplanted  them,  is  exalted  as  the  • 
perfect  moral  ideal,  and  thereby  commended  to  wor- 
ship. The  antagonism  involved  in  this  possibility  of 
supplanting  the  old  divinity  by  new  human  energies, 
and  the  arduousness  of  the  test,  has  its  representative 
victim  in  the  mythologic  king  Trisanku,  whose  ambi- 
tious virtue,  offending  the  gods,  caused  him  to  be  flung 
back  from  heaven,  whither  he  had  ascended,  towards 
the  earth  ;  but,  being  caught  on  his  way  by  the  power- 
ful Visvamitra,  he  remained  suspended  in  space,  form- 
ing a  constellation  in  the  southern  sky. 

Such  being  the  recognized  authority  of  the  contem- 
Buddhism  plative  and  moral  ideals,  to  supplant  their  own 
the  ultimate  past  forms  with  higher  ones,  it  was  natural 
contempia-  that  a  definite  negative  should  come  at  last,  to 
tion.  sweep  away  every  claim  of  everlastingness  in 

the  existent  objects  of  Hindu  faith ;  to  disparage  the 
old  divinities  more  than  the  boldest  war-chiefs  had 
done,  and  to  give  law  even  to  Brahma,  through  a 
force  of  abstraction  profounder  than  that  which  his 
name  had  signified  or  his  perfection  involved.  It  was 
natural  that  contemplation  itself,  pressing  freely  to  its 
utmost  limit,  should  find  its  own  nirvana,  and  be,  as  it 
were,  set  free  of  its  distinctive  self,  into  universality, 
both  speculative  and  moral ;  so  that  out  of  the  depths 

1  See  the  whole  plot  of  SakuntalU,  which  is  founded  on  an  event  of  this  sort.  Also 
the  story  of  Sunda  and  Upasunda  in  the  Mahabhamta. 


THE    HOUR    AND    THE    MAN.  703 

of  philosophical  pantheism,  out  of  utmost  isolation 
and  abstraction,  should  arise  this  wonderful  Budd- 
hism, this  "  awakening,"  this  "  illumination  "  of  idea 
and  purpose,  with  the  grand  sweep  of  its  affirmation  : 
"  All  that  lives  and  breathes  shall  become  Buddha  ;  " 
with  its  faith  that  whenever  a  Buddha  passes  into 
nirvana,  his  karma  is  poured  through  the  worlds  as 
a  fulness  of  living  moral  energies ; 1  its  summons  to 
every  one  to  master  evil  and  make  his  own  destiny ; 
and  its  tender  and  earnest  impulse  to  save  all  men,  its 
world-wide  gospel  to  the  poor. 

Can  we  wonder  that  a  gospel  whose  essence  lay  in 
the  experience  that  thought  can  reach  its  final  purpose, 
and  existence  its  solution,  only  in  service  of  mankind, 
should  have  been  heard  so  gladly  by  the  teeming 
populations  of  the  East?  Sublime  demonstration  that 
the  soul,  even  in  its  dreams,  finds  a  path  to  universal- 
ity, both  in  sympathy  and  faith. 

Most  naturally  too,    as   we   have    seen,   arose  this 
radical  self-affirmation  of  the  human,  through 
all  negation  towards  special  objects  of  faith,  tion  of  the 
As  Brahmanical  piety  was    absorbed    in    the 
idea  of  God,  so  there  seems  to  have  always  existed 
by  the   side  of  it,  in  India,  some  form  of  protest  and 
reaction  in  the  name  of  man.      Its  earnestness  and 
courage  are  seen  in  such  proverbs  as  these  from  the 
Dhammapada  :  — 

"  Neither  God  nor  Gandharva,  nor  Mara  (the  spirit  of  evil),  with 
Brahma  combined,  can  make  that  man's  victory  a  defeat,  who  has 
constantly  ruled  himself." 

"  Even  the  gods  envy  the  thoughtful,  calm,  awakened  ones." 
"  Better  than  lordship  over  all  worlds  is  to  take  the  first  step  in 
virtue." 

1  Bastian,  Die  IVcltauffassung  der  Buddhisten  (Berlin,  1870),  p.  23. 


704  BUDDHISM. 

The  Buddha  is  in  origin  purely  human  ;  yet  contem- 
plation exalts  him  above  all  gods.  His  human  energy 
masters  all  special  forms  of  being  and  power  in  all 
worlds.  His  personal  will  chooses  to  postpone  his 
hard-earned  nirvana,  that  he  ma)'  share  it  with  all 
mankind  ;  that  he  may  teach  the  whole  world  the  way 
to  its  blessedness.  This  is  like  the  divine  love  as- 
cribed to  Jesus  in  Christian  creeds.  But  between  the 
two  religions  that  correspond  to  these  two  ideals  there 
is  this  difference.  In  Buddhism  the  moral  grandeur 
redounds  purely  and  unmistakably  to  the  honor  of 
human  nature,  since  it  has  always  been  maintained 
that  Gotama  was  essentially  human.1  Christianity,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  not  rested  the  virtue  of  Jesus  on  the 
natural  capacity  of  man  ;  however  it  may  imply,  in 
holding  him  to  be  the  manifestation  of  deity,  that  a 
human  form  may,  for  once,  be  transfigured  by  special 
divine  influx. 

This  coming  of  the  human  to  positive  self-assertion 
in  Buddhism  was,  as  I  have  said,  in   part  a 

Earlier 

germs  of  protest  against  disparaging  man  in  the  name  ot 
thls'  God.     But  we  must  not  carry  this  explanation 

of  it  too  far.  We  should,  for  instance,  be  quite  wrong 
in  regarding  it  as  the  extreme  reaction  from  an  absolute 
denial  of  the  Human  in  Brahmanism  to  an  absolute  de- 
nial of  the  Divine.  This  would  be  to  overstate  both  sides 
as  forms  of  negation.  We  have  already  seen  that  Budd- 
hism was  not  atheistic  ;  and  it  is  equally  true  that  its 
claim  for  man  was  not  an  absolute  revolution  in  Hindu 
philosophy.  It  was  indeed  adequate  to  give  fresh 
direction  to  the  thought  and  life  of  the  people.     It  was 

1  See  Hardy,  Manual,  p.  363.  "  To  remove  the  doubts  of  all  beings,  to  show  that 
what  he  does  is  not  by  the  power  of  irdki,  or  miraculous  gift,  he  receives  Buddhaship  as  a 
man,  born  from  the  womb." 


THE    HOUR    AND    THE    MAN.  705 

a  new  expansive  force,  a  stimulus  to  zeal  and  sacrifice. 
The  soul  always  seeks  a  true  balance  of  its  activities ; 
and  so  contemplative  devotion  enforced  a  demand  for 
enthusiasm  and  the  inspiration  o'f  work.  Hence  the 
Buddhist's  appeal  to  the  masses,  his  fearless  rejection 
of  the  old  divinities  that  slumbered  in  the  bosom  of 
caste.  But  there  was  in  that  older  contemplative  piety 
itself,  it  must  be  remembered,  the  germ  of  a  profound 
recognition  of  the  Human.  Spiritual  Pantheism,  in  its 
substantial  meaning,  exalts  and  reveres  soul,  as  soul. 
Its  logic  can  never  quite  escape  a  democratic,  universal 
form.  Its  God  in  India  was  not  this  Brahman  nor  that 
rishi,  but  "  All  in  all."  Therefore,  as  we  have  seen,  its 
development  naturally  brought  rationalistic  and  free 
mystical  tendencies,  caste-disintegration,  and,  in  a 
word,  Buddhism  itself,  in  definite,  constructive  form, 
as  the  concurrence  of  all  these,  notwithstanding  every 
thing  that  ecclesiasticism  could  do  to  prevent  them. 

We  must  note  that  it  was  only  as  special  divinities 
that  the  elder  gods  were  liable  to  be  supplanted  T.  .     , 

0  r  r  Limits  of 

by  the  spiritual  disciplines  of  special  saints.  It  this  claim  of 
was  only  as  a  god  that  Brahma  was  dethroned  the  human- 
by. the  Buddhist  test  of  transiency,  not  as  God.  It  is 
not  to  be  inferred  therefore  that  the  attitude  of  censor- 
ship we  have  described  involved  ignorance  or  rejection 
of  an  eternal  essence  beyond  the  power  of  human 
criticism  to  change,  or  of  human  achievement  to  sup- 
plant. Only  the  pursuit  of  such  transcendent  moral 
reality  could  have  enforced  the  criticism  of  specific 
objects  of  worship,  and  the  effort  to  achieve  their  sub- 
jection by  a  higher  truth  and  virtue  than  their  own. 

It  is  true  that  the  gods,  thus  declared  to  be  merely 
temporary,  were  also  held  to  be  actual  beings  and 
powers  in  the  universe  :   so  that  in  the  treatment  of  all 

45 


706  BUDDHISM. 

such  definite  forms  of  deity  as  provisional  there  lay  the 
danger  of  dissolving  objective  truth  in  the  self-asser- 
tion of  the  critical  faculty ;  and  of  claiming  not  only 
that  man  makes  and  unmakes  his  special  conception 
of  God,  but  that  God,  as  God,  is  nothing  else  than  a 
human  conception.  But  these  perils  of  negation  were 
held  in  check  by  a  profound  veneration  in  the  Oriental 
mind  for  the  independence  of  the  eternal,  absolute, 
and  infinite.  It  was  but  as  forms  of  personal  will  that 
the  gods  were  held  to  be  thus  provisional,  and  subject  to 
the  demand  for  more  perfect  fulfilment  of  the  religious 
ideal. 

The  Buddhist  has  not  therefore  committed  the  weak- 
ness of  holding  Brahma  or  Vishnu  to  be  true 

Imperfect  ° 

sense  of  and  perfect  Deity,  while  at  the  same  time 
subjecting  him  to  human  criticism  and  even 
mastership.  Yet,  when  Buddha  himself  came  to  be 
the  centre  of  religious  faith  and  mythologic  creation, 
he  was  regarded  as  subject  to  human  influence  and 
even  control,  with  little  respect  for  the  self-adequacy 
of  the  divine.  So  Vishnu  is  described  by  Kalidasa  as 
"greater  than  the  self-existent,"  when  choosing  a  mortal 
shape,  to  save  mankind.1  To  this  imperfect  sense  .of 
the  meaning  of  deity  all  religions  are  subject,  in  con- 
centrating worship  on  a  definite  personal  will.  In  the 
same  way,  the  Christ  practically  supplants  the  Father 
in  the  faith  and  service  of  Christians ;  and  God  be- 
comes only  an  "impalpable  effluence,"  from  the  person 
of  his  own  Son  !  It  hardly  becomes  Christendom  to 
rebuke  Buddhism  for  putting  a  man  in  place  of  God. 
Luther  said  that  God  had  "tied  himself  to  man  by 
bonds  of  prayer  ;"  Montalembert,  that  "prayer  equals, 
sometimes   surpasses,  the  power  of  God,  triumphing 

1  Sakuntala,  Act.  VII. 


THE    HOUR   AND   THE    MAN.  707 

over  His  will,  His  wrath,  and  even  over  His  justice." 
"God,"  says  Ruskin,  "is  a  Being  who  can  be  reasoned 
with,  moved  by  entreaties,  angered  by  our  rebellion, 
alienated  by  our  coldness,  pleased  by  our  love,  and 
glorified  by  our  labor."  All  this  is  certainly  to 
worship  the  conditional  and  finite.  It  would  sub- 
ject the  moral  order  of  the  universe  to  the  infirmi- 
ties of  human  desire.  It  is  also,  on  the  other  hand, 
however  unconscious  and  perverted,  a  kind  of  claim 
justly  entered  by  the  human  to  determine  the  paths  of 
freedom  and  progress.  Both  these  forces  manifestly 
involve  criticism  and  even  supersedure  of  what  has 
been  held  the  adequate  object  of  worship.  But  they 
are  perverted,  if  not  suppressed,  in  so  far  as  the  claim 
amounts  to  a  pretension  of  moving  and  changing  deity 
itself;  in  so  far  as  it  is  assumed  that  one  who  can 
be  thus  criticised,  changed,  convinced,  improved,  and 
even  supplanted,  has  in  very  fact  exhausted  the  idea 
of  infinite,  absolute  Being.  Such,  however,  is  the  per- 
verted form  under  which  the  claim  of  the  human  to 
shape  its  religious  ideal  appears,  not  in  the  distin- 
guished instances  only  that  have  just  been  given, 
but  in  the  general  tenor  of  Christian  praying  and 
preaching. 

And  the  sincerity  and  devoutness,  which  is  found  to 
be  compatible  therewith  in  the  Christian  world,  should 
prepare  us  to  believe  that  a  similar  failing  in  later 
Buddhism  is  not  without  its  aspirations  to  freedom 
and  its  sentiment  of  reverence  and  faith. 


V. 

AFTER-LIFE     IN     INDIA. 


AFTER-LIFE    IN     INDIA. 


T  TARDLY  any  thing  in  the  history  of  religion  is 
•*■  more  impressive  than  the  energy  with  Extension  of 
which  Buddhism  was  propagated  for  centuries  Buddliism- 
after  the  time  of  Sakyamuni,  and  its  success  in  revo- 
lutionizing the  religious  life  of  the  great  and  little 
states  into  which  northern  India  was  divided.  All 
the  oldest  inscriptions  on  Hindu  monuments  are  not 
only  written  in  dialects  of  popular  language,  but  are 
shown  to  be  Buddhist  by  their  spirit  also,  as  well  as 
by  the  emblems  which  in  many  cases  are  associated 
with  them  :  the  chaitya,  or  relic  temple,  the  tree,  the 
wheel,  the  cross,  the  seated  Buddha.  And  the  same 
conclusion  holds  of  the  old  coins  of  India,  so  far  as 
they  have  been  brought  to  light.  Fahian  speaks  of 
Buddhism  as  "the  law  of  India;"  and  the  immense 
treasures  of  sacred  literature  with  which  Hiouen 
Thsang  returned  to  China  prove  that  the  resources  of 
the  faith  were  in  his  time  almost  unlimited.  Yet  the 
practical  missionary  zeal  which  it  demanded  of  its 
converts  could  not  be  contented  with  the  passive  spirit 
of  Hindu  civilization.  That  restless  ardor  to  deliver 
all  mankind  drove  them  to  expend  most  of  their  force 
on  distant  regions.  Gradually,  too,  after  many  cen- 
turies of  depression,  there  came  a  revival  of  Brahman- 


712  BUDDHISM. 

ism,  of  which  we  have  no  very  clear  explanation. 
Doubtless  the  hold  it  had  at  the  earlier  period  in 
the  inertia  of  established  system  was  not  wholly  lost 
through  the  palmy  days  of  Buddhist  ascendency. 
Doubtless  it  learned  to  quote  the  radical  metaphysics 
and  thorough  rationalism  of  its  rival  with  disparaging 
effect  before  a  people  naturally  reverent  towards  tra- 
dition, profoundly  mystical,  and  open  to  recognize 
somewhat  authoritative  in  an  ancient  title  to  the  Vedas, 
those  fountains  of  national  faith.  But  the  disappear- 
ance of  Buddhism  from  the  soil  of  India  is  a  conse- 
quence not  so  much  of  this  revival  of  Brahmanism  — 
which  has,  after  all,  never  been  very  effectual  —  as  of 
its  own  absorption  into  numerous  sects,  which  have 
transferred  much  of  its  spirit  into  new  forms  of  popular 
faith.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  how  much  of  the  disinte- 
gration of  caste  described  in  an  earlier  part  of  this 
work  as  going  on  in  later  times,  and  which  is  manifest 
in  nearly  all  important  sects  of  recent  formation,  is 
due  to  the  direct  influence  of  distinctive  Buddhism. 
Though  it  has  failed  to  eradicate  the  idea  of  caste- 
subordination  from  the  Hindu  mind,  so  that  even  in 
Ceylon,  where  its  effect  on  manners  and  life  has  been 
very  great,  the  lowest,  or  Chandala  caste,  still  re- 
mains ; 1  yet  the  separation  of  that  idea  from  religious 
faith  and  institution  has  been  a  marked  result  of  the 
forces  which  it  set  in  motion. 

Buddhism  was  still  more  effectual  in  its  reaction 
influence  on  against  the  sacrifices  of  animals,  which  had 
sacrifices,  succeeded  those  simple  Vedic  rites,  so  seldom 
stained  with  blood.  Even  the  cakes,  butter,  and  soma- 
juice  of  those  early  days  were  abjured  by  these 
thorough  Puritans,  who  allowed  no  rite  but  the  offer- 

1  Tennent?s  Ceylon. 


AFTER-LIFE    IN    INDIA.  713 

ing  of  flowers  to  their  perfected  Buddhas.  And  even 
the  great  Brahmanical  revival  has  not  restored  the  ani- 
mal sacrifices  thus  interrupted,  except  in  rare  instances, 
and,  as  some  affirm,  in  a  single  province.  The  Hindus 
have,  as  a  people,  returned  to  the  old  Vedic  ways,  and 
bring  their  offerings  from  the  dairy  and  the  field.1 

The  inspiration  of  Buddhism  was,  moreover,  in  its 
practical  energy,  its  faith  in  liberty  and  inItshold 
active  work;  and  with  these  the  climate  ofonIndia- 
India  was  less  congenial  than  that  of  regions  to  the 
north  and  west.  Its  apostles  were  attracted  by  the 
rude  and  unsettled  condition  of  the  tribes  of  middle 
Asia,  as  stropgly  as  they  were  repelled  from  Hindustan 
by  fixed  ideas  and  systems.  Yet  the  influences  of  cli- 
mate, tradition,  and  organization  combined,  failed  for 
twelve  centuries  to  dislodge  Buddhism  from  the  coun- 
try of  its  birth.  The  special  causes  of  its  disappear- 
ance from  India,  in  or  about  the  ninth  century,  are 
still  unknown.  This  epoch  is  the  dark  age  of  Hindu 
history.  Its  scanty  traditions  hint  of  merciless  relig- 
ious persecutions  ;  but  of  these,  if  they  really  occurred, 
all  definite  record  has  been  effaced. a  Of  crusades 
against  Buddhism  by  teachers  like  Sankara  and  Ku- 
marila  Bhatta,  and  of  quarrels  with  the  kindred  school 
of  the  Jainas,  we  have  little  more  than  vague  rumors. 
These  Dark  Ages  were  times  of  intestine  strife  among 
the  principalities  of  India.  They  were  followed  by  the 
all-commingling  flood  of  Mohammedan  invasion  ;  and, 
when  the  old  sects  and  schools  reappeared,  it  was  under 
new  names,  and  as  results  of  a  ferment  and  fusion 
not  now  to  be  traced.  Buddhism  has  but  been  exiled 
in  name :  the  substance  remained,  and  told  decisively 
on  the  theology,  literature,  and  life  of  the  Hindu  race. 

1  See  Wheeler,  I.  159.  3  Lassen,  IV.  708. 


714  BUDDHISM. 

The  Bhagavadgita  is  an  evidence  of  this  influence, 
for  the  period  previous  to  the  expulsion.      It 

Shown  in  r  *■  . 

the  Bhaga-  is  Brahmanism  making  such  concessions  to 
vadgita.  Buddhism  as  were  necessary  to  save  its  own 
life  ;  recognizing  the  duty  of  eclectic  liberality,  and 
yielding  a  surprising  amount  of  moral  consideration 
and  respect  to  the  lower  castes.  The  Yoga  system  of 
Patanjali,  probably  one  of  the  outgrowths  of  Budd- 
hism, or  at  least  a  successor  in  the  same  line,  had  in 
one  sense  equalized  men,  by  exalting  ascetic  life  as 
such  above  the  distinctive  functions  assigned  by  the 
older  faith  to  the  several  castes.  The  Bhagavadgita, 
while  it  disparaged  these  exclusive  claims  of  ascetic 
discipline,  yet  obeyed  the  democratic  impulse  of 
Buddhism  in  another  way ;  emphasizing  the  duty  of 
action  and  the  demands  of  society  on  the  individual. 
It  reduced  the  whole  mythological  world  to  unity ; 
and,  with  Buddhistic  thoroughness,  absorbed  the  whole 
universe  of  gods  and  men  into  the  abyss  of  apparent 
annihilation.  "As  torrents  rush  into  the  ocean,  so  the 
heroes  of  the  human  race  enter  the  flaming  mouths, 
the  fire  of  death." *  Brahma  could  never  have  appeared 
under  so  terrible  a  form,  —  that  eremite  God  of  eternal 
rest.  The  thought  of  evanescence  must  have  been 
deepened  by  some  powerful  educational  force.  The 
universal  energy  of  death  is  even  declared  in  plain 
words  to  be  greater  than  Brahma  himself.2  And  we 
have  here,  without  doubt,  the  gigantic  shadow  cast 
upon  Brahmanism  by  the  Buddhist  Nirvdna,  as  well  as 
by  the  terrors  of  the  popular  theology,  which  were 
not  to  be  wholly  escaped.  But  when  that  abysmal 
deity  changes  his  form,  and  appears  at  once  as  Krishna, 
incarnation  of  Vishnu,  the  preserving  Spirit,  bidding 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  xi.  2  Ibid. 


AFTER-LIFE    IN    INDIA.  715 

Arjuna  look  on  him  "free  from  fear,  with  happy- 
heart," —  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize  in  this  no- 
blest avatdra,  counselling  to  manly  human  service,1 
to  absolute  disinterestedness,  to  liberation  from  the 
Vedas,  to  the  worship  of  eternal  truth,2  an  effort  of 
Brahmanism  to  combine  with  its  aspirations  toward 
an  immortal  life  the  practical  love  and  freedom  en- 
forced by  the  Buddhist  gospel. 

"  Without  action  you  cannot  reach  freedom  from  action  :  whoso 
restrains  the  senses  and  acts  unselfishly,  without  interest  in  the 
fruits,  yet  who  acts,  seeking  the  good  of  mankind,  attains  peace. 
His  path  leads  to  nirv&na  in  the  Supreme  Spirit." 3 

This  is  certainly  as  near  Buddhism  as  Brahmanism 
could  be  expected  to  arrive.     Krishna  says  further :  — 

"  It  is  the  mind  liberated  from  the  Vedas  that  reaches  true  con- 
templation.    Seek  refuge  in  thy  mind." 4 

"  Even  Vaisyas  and  Sudras  take  the  highest  path,  if  they  turn 
to  me.     How  much  more,  then,  Brahmans  and  Kshattriyas  !  " 5 

It  is  Arjuna,  the  Kshattriya  king,  who  is  prom- 
ised the  highest  unity  with  deity,  and  admitted  to 
visions  hidden  from  all  other  men.6  Such  conces- 
sions to  the  lower  castes,  however  imperfect,  indicate 
democratic  influences  which  the  hereditary  priesthood 
had  been  unable  to  resist. 

All  this  is  none  the  less  true  because  the  caste  sys- 
tem is  still  maintained  in  the  Bhagavadgita,  the  whole 
theory  of  action  qualified  thereby,  and  the  duty  of 
the  warrior  to  his  caste  asserted,  and  emphatically 
urged.  Nor  is  it  the  less  true  because  the  poem  indi- 
cates none  of  that  aversion  to  bloodshed  which  was 
characteristic  of    Buddhism.      The  other  points  that 

1  Bhag.  G.,  ch.  iii.  xii.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  ii.  s  Ibid.,  ch.  iii.  ii. 

1  Ibid.,  ch.  ii.  B  Ibid.,  ch.  ix.  6  Ibid.,  ch.  xi. 


7l6  BUDDHISM. 

have  been  noted  amply  suffice  to  show  a  profound 
influence  proceeding  from  this  religion,  in  the  phi- 
losophy and  ethics  of  an  age  five  centuries  after  its 
birth. 

Some  have  supposed  that  the  Ramayana  originated 
intheRa-  m  a  Brahmanical  reaction  against  Buddhism.1 
mayana.  On  this  theory,  Rama's  war  with  the  Rak- 
shasas,  and  his  triumphant  invasion  of  Ceylon,  aided 
by  supernatural  apes  and  bears,  was  a  poetic  version 
of  the  expulsion  of  the  Buddhists  out  of  southern 
India,  by  a  religious  crusade,  assisted  by  aboriginal 
tribes  of  the  Dekkan.  The  old  gods  of  the  Rig  Veda, 
and  those  of  the  native  races,  as  well  as  the  tradi- 
tional heroes  of  the  warrior  caste,  were  all  brought 
in  to  effect  the  restoration  of  the  older  faith  ;  all  these 
popular  religious  associations  being  wrought  up  with 
dramatic  effect  in  the  beautiful  tale  of  Rama's  re- 
covery of  his  lost  Sita  from  the  ravisher  Ravana, 
which  forms  the  second  half  of  the  epic.  The  proofs 
of  such  a  connection,  however,  do  not  seem  at  all 
satisfactory.  The  harpy-like,  blood-thirsty  Raksha- 
sas,  especially,  could  hardly  have  been  suggested  by 
Buddhism.  Yet  the  Ramayana  bears  striking  marks 
of  the  influence  of  this  faith  on  the  Brahmanical  sys- 
tem. The  concessions  to  popular  mythology  in  which 
it  abounds,  though  written  in  the  interest  of  the  priest- 
hood ;  the  recognition  of  older  and  later  incarnations ; 
the  democratic  spirit  shown  by  the  people's  taking 
an  active  interest  in  affairs  of  state,  giving  advice  to 
the  king,  urging  their  desires  on  his  ministers,  and 
even  jeering  and  reproaching  him  ;  the  introduction 
of  Sudras  into  public  ceremonies,  and  the  pouring  of 
water  on  the  heads  of  princes  at  their  inauguration, 

1  Wheeler's  History  of  India,  II.,  Introd.,  p.  lxxvii. 


AFTER-LIFE    IN    INDIA.  7l7 

by  all  the  castes, — show  that  Brahmanism  had  been 
reduced  to  recognizing  equalities  that  had  no  place  in 
its  system  ;  a  change  that  must  be  due  to  Buddhism. 

After  this,  too,  we  hear  more  about  gods  of  the 
■people.1  They  were  in  many  respects  such  as  inthepopu_ 
might  be  expected  from  the  many  causes  0flartheol°sy- 
demoralization  in  India  during  modern  times ;  yet 
their  number  and  their  prominence  alike  indicate  that 
the  exclusiveness  of  Brahmanism  had  to  give  way  to 
the  demand  of  the  popular  mind  for  freedom.  The 
people  transformed  the  old  deities  of  the  Veda ;  and 
even  the  later  ones,  Brahma,  Vishnu,-  Siva,  were 
merged  in  Krishna  and  Rama.  The  priesthood  were 
obliged  to  elaborate  the  popular  deities  in  combination 
with  their  Brahma  into  a  form  of  trinity ;  and  even  to 
subordinate  Brahma  to  Vishnu  and  Siva.  In  the  com- 
mon mind  they  remained  separate,  and  each  had  his 
sect  of  worshippers.  Vishnu,  a  Vedic  god,  who  had 
come  to  represent  the  bounty  and  serenity  of  nature, 
grew  into  the  beneficent  divinity  of  the  Ganges  popu- 
lation,2 embodying  in  his  avatar  as  the  noble  faith 
that  God  descends  to  save  the  world,  whenever  evil 
wins  the  upper  hand.  The  worship  of  Vishnu-Jagan- 
nath,  "protest  of  the  equality  of  men  before  God,"  — 
making  all  castes  eat  together,  celebrating  traditions 
of  the  most  humane  and  democratic  spirit,  —  whose 
very  breadth  has  opened  it  to  excesses  by  a  few  minor 
sects,  which  all  classes  condemn,  —  is  now  shown  to 
be  largely  the  result  of  Buddhism,  and  associated  with 
its  earliest  struggles.3 

1  Lassen,  IV.  594.  2  Duncker,  II.  232. 

3  Mr.  Hunter,  from  whose  interesting  work  on  Orissa  these  statements  are  drawn,  speaks 
in  the  highest  terms  of  the  behavior  of  the  pilgrims  of  Jagannath,  and  of  the  influence  of 
his  worship  on  the  customs  of  the  people.  The  lines  of  research,  so  ably  opened  by  Mr. 
Hunter,  promise  real  light  on  the  darkest  periods  in  the  history  of  Buddhism  in  India. 


7l8  BUDDHISM. 

It  is  in  coming  down  to  these  later  times  that  we 
The  modern  realize  how  immense  a  variety  of  tendencies 
sects.  js  covered  by  the  common  name  Hinduism, 
and  how  large  and  free  has  been  the  growth  of  this 
tropical  religious  nature.  Wilson's  enumeration  of 
the  principal  sects  alone  runs  up  to  nearly  sixty. 

Scarcely  one  of  the  dogmas  of  older  schools  has 
Their  free  escaped  denial.  Freedom  of  thought  and  spec- 
criticism.  ulation  has  been  as  perfect  as  ever  in  the 
world. 

There  are  Vaishnava  sects,  as  well  as  others,  that 
deny  the  absolute  unity  of  deity,  and  repudiate  mok- 
sha,  or  absorption  into  the  One,  carrying  the  Sank- 
hyan  principle  of  individuality  to  its  furthest  extreme  ;* 
others  that  reject  asceticism,  passing  over  to  the  op- 
posite pole,  and  in  some  instances,  we  must  add,  into 
sensuality  under  religious  sanctions  ;  2  others  that  hold 
themselves  bound,  in  view  of  the  dogma  of  incarnation, 
to  reverence  the  guru,  or  spiritual  guide,  as  not  only 
one  with  God,  but  greater  even  than  Krishna  him- 
self;3 others  that  consider  ascetics  as  persons  who  are 
suffering  the  penalties  of  sins  committed  in  former 
lives,  and  deny  the  possibility  of  avatdras,  since  God 
can  neither  be  subject  to  transmigration  nor  to  union.4 

There  are  sectaries  who  say  jokingly,  when  they 
hear  the  Vedas  recited,  "These  are  sick  people,  in  a 
painful  fit,  or  hired  journeymen  in  an  uproar ; "  and 
when  they  see  the  sacred  thread  on  the  neck  of  a 
Brahman,  "A  cow  will  not  be  without  a  rope."5 
There  are  others  who  "  recognize  the  being  of  God  in 
mankind,   know    no  being    more    perfect   than    man- 


1  Madhwas.  2  Vallabhacharyas  and  Saktas. 

8  Chaitanyas,  Kartabhajas.  *  School  of  Piranah  [Dabistan,  II.  viii  ). 

B  Charvaks  (Dabistan,  II.  ix.). 


THE    LATER    SECTS.  719 

kind,  and   think    that   it    contains    nothing   of  a  bad 
nature."1 

Nor  is  the  disintegration  of  traditions  less  mani- 
fest in  the  sphere  of  sentiment  than  in  that    inmythoi- 

c  j  ogy- 

01  dogma. 

One  issue  of  the  old  democratic  movement  of  Budd- 
hism is  to  be  traced  in  the  chaos  of  the  later  mythol- 
ogy, which  awaits  some  centralizing  and  spiritualizing 
power. 

This  very  luxuriance  proves  the  richness  of  the 
native  soil.     We   may  therefore  be  sure  that  „  . 

J  Native  spir- 

the  reconciling  principle,  after  all  this  disinte-  ituai  resour- 
gration,  will  spring  from  Hindu,  not  foreign,  ce 
associations.  The  total  failure  of  distinctively  Chris- 
tian propagandism  was  to  be  expected.  How  should 
this  rich  and  free  symbolism  be  supplanted  by  exclu- 
siveness  in  type  and  form?  Morality,  science,  free- 
dom, humanity,  will  speak  to  the  Hindus  in  those 
universal  aspects  which  belong  to  the  age  ;  but  it  must 
be  through  their  own  native  experience.  The  foot- 
hold must  be  found  in  their  natural  associations  and 
descent. 

This  free  spirit  is  illustrated  by  the  Sikhs,  or  dis- 
ciples, at  first  a  religious  sect,  then  roused  by    •,    „.,, 

r  .  The  Sikhs. 

persecution  into  a  nation  of  soldiers,  fight- 
ing for  liberty  of  conscience,  and  establishing  a  free 
state  in  the  Panjab,  which  they  held  for  centuries, 
until  it  passed  under  English  rule.  No  race  in  India 
has  shown  a  braver  or  more  independent  spirit,  in 
thought  or  in  conduct,  than  the  Sikhs.  They  date 
their  history  from  Nanak,  a  native  Hindu  teacher  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  a  grain  factor  by  trade,  who 
threw  aside  Vedas  and  Koran,  denounced  caste,  sati, 

1  Manushya  Bhakta  (Ibid.,  xii.). 


720  BUDDHISM. 

and  all  other  degrading  customs  and  institutions,  and 
preached  pure  Theism,  broad  humanity,  and  a  code 
of  morals  nowhere  surpassed.  Renouncing  the  ascet- 
ic garb,  he  spent  his  life  in  domestic  relations,  and 
after  a  long  ministry,  in  the  cause  of  right  and  noble 
living,  of  large  tolerance,  and  devout  aspiration,  died, 
like  Buddha,  surrounded  by  devoted  disciples,  the 
founder  of  a  new  religion.  Rebuked  for  sleeping 
with  his  feet  towards  a  temple,  this  teacher  asked  : 
"  Whither  shall  I  turn  my  feet,  if  I  would  point  them 
where  God's  house  is  not?"  Like  Buddha,  he  is 
believed  to  have  had  previous  lives  on  earth.  The 
following  story  from  the  Dabistan 1  is  thoroughly 
Buddhistic  :  — 

"  When  Nanak  died,  he  saw  two  roads,  the  one  to  heaven,  the 
other  to  hell.  He  chose  the  latter,  and  descending  thither  brought 
all  the  inhabitants  out.  But  God  said, '  These  sinners  cannot  enter 
heaven  :  you  must  return  into  the  world,  and  liberate  them.  There- 
fore Nanak  came  into  this  world,  and  his  followers  are  those  former 
inhabitants  of  hell :  the  guru  (teacher)  comes  and  goes,  until  that 
multitude  shall  have  found  their  salvation." 

The  Sikh  Bible,  Adi  Granth,  compiled  by  Arjuna, 
a  subsequent  guru,  in  the  next  century,  and  written 
in  a  now  obsolete  tongue,2  contains  contributions  from 
the  teachings  of  twenty-five  persons,  of  all  orders 
and  pursuits ;  among  them  a  leather-dresser,  a  cloth- 
printer,  a  barber,  a  butcher,  and  a  musician ;  also  a 
woman.  It  teaches  the  unity  of  God,  the  moral  laws, 
and  liberty  of  thought  and  worship ;  forbids  all  vices, 
and  commands  the  practical  virtues  and  universal 
love.3 

This  Bible  speaks  of  God  as  "one,  sole,  self-exist- 

1  Dab.,  II.  p.  269. 

2  Trumpp,  in  Journal  of  Royal  As-  Soc.  for  1871,  p.  198. 

3  Asiatic  Researcfies,  I.  292. 


THE    LATER    SECTS.  ?2I 

ent,  the  meaning  and  the  cause  of  all,  who  has  seen 
numberless  creeds  and  names  come  and  go." 
Nanak  says  :  — 

"  The  true  name  is  the  Creator,  the  Being  without  fear,  without 
enmity,  the  everlasting  (timeless)  One,  the  Self-existing." 

"  From  his  beneficence  comes  clothing ;  from  his  merciful 
glance,  the  gate  of  salvation.  If  He  be  praised,  heard,  and  revered 
in  the  heart,  He  will  take  away  pain  and  bring  comfort." 

"His  worshippers  rejoice  always  :  to  hear  him  is  the  end  of  sin 
and  pain." 

"  He  is  not  found  in  names,  readings,  austerities.  If  I  knew 
Him,  I  would  speak  it ;  but  the  story  cannot  be  told.  What  his 
power,  what  his  thought  ?     I  cannot  come  up  to  it." 

"  What  pleases  Thee,  that  is  a  good  work.  If  the  heart  is  de- 
filed by  sin,  it  is  washed  in  the  dye  of  God's  name.  They  who  have 
done  a  deed,  themselves  have  set  it  down.  They  sow  themselves 
and  reap  themselves." 

"  What  word  may  be  spoken  by  the  mouth,  which  having  heard 
He  may  bestow  love  ?  " 

"  Early  reflect  on  the  greatness  of  the  true  Name." 

"  Remember  the  truth  that  is  from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  — 
the  truth  that  is  and  will  be  for  ever :  not  by  meditation  can  truth 
be  reached,  nor  by  silence,  though  I  keep  up  continual  devotion. 
The  wall  of  falsehoods  is  broken  by  walking  in  the  commandments 
of  God." 

"  They  say  there  are  four  races  ;  yet  all  are  of  the  seed  of  Brah- 
ma. The  four  races  shall  be  one,  and  all  shall  call  on  the 
Teacher.  Think  not  of  thy  caste,  but  abase  thyself,  and  be 
saved." 

"  Fight  with  no  weapon  but  the  word  of  God ;  use  no  means  but 
a  pure  faith." 

"  Devotion  is  not  in  ragged  garments,  nor  staff,  nor  ashes,  nor 
shaven  head,  nor  sounding  horns." 

"  He  is  pure  who  does  no  evil,  is  intent  on  good,  and  ever  giveth 
to  the  poor." 

"  Be  true,  and  thou  shalt  be  free  :  to  be  true  belongs  to  thee  ; 
thy  success,  to  the  Creator."  ' 

1  Cunningham's  History  of '  tJie  Sikhs;  Ludlow's  British  India,  vol.  i. ;  Trumpp,  ut 
supra. 

46 


722  BUDDHISM. 

Other  Sikh  gurus  have  left  these  sayings  :  — 

"  My  mind  dwells  on  One,  who  gave  the  body  and  soul." 

"  Many  Brahmans  have  wearied  themselves  with  studying  the 

Veds,  but  found  not  the  value  of  an  oil-seed." 

"  With  slayers  of  their  daughters,  whoever  has  intercourse,  him 

I  hold  accursed." 

"  Not  they  are  sati  who  perish  in  the  flames,  but  they,  O  Nanak  ! 

who  die  of  broken  hearts." 

"  Fall  at  God's  feet :  in  senseless  stone  God  is  not." 

"  God  heard  the  cry  of  virtue,  and  Nanak  was  sent  into  the 

world  :  the  four  castes  became  one,  the  high  and  the  low  equal." 
"  The  Sikh  should  set  his  heart  on  charity  and  purity." 
"  He  who  takes  the  goods  of  sister  or  daughter,  who  oppresses 

the  poor,  is  punished.     He  who  gives  not  to  the  needy  shall  not 

see  God." 

"He  'is  of  the  faithful  who  protects  the  poor,  combats  evil,  re- 
members God  ;  who  is  wholly  unfettered,  who  ever  wages  battle, 

who  slays  the  Turk,  and  extends  the  faith.'1 1 

The  last  sentence  is  from  Govinda,  a  warlike  guru, 
"who  wore  two  swords  in  his  girdle,  the  one  to  avenge 
his  father,  the  other  to  destroy  the  miracles  of  Mo- 
hammed."2 The  peaceful  Nanak  brought,  after  all, 
"  not  peace,  but  a  sword ; "  and  Govinda,  the  tenth 
teacher,  must  change  the  name  Sikhs  (disciples)  to 
Singhs  (lions) ,  and  organize  his  people  to  defend  the 
faith.  Nanak  has  also,  like  Buddha  and  Jesus,  been 
transformed  in  the  faith  of  his  later  followers  from  the 
simply  philanthropic  reformer  into  the  chief  of  divine 
emanations,  and  the  way  ordained  for  the  redemption 
of  the  world. 

But  Govinda  was  theologically  free  and  thoroughly 
in  earnest. 

"  Since  he  fell  at  God's  feet,  no  one  has  appeared  great  in  his 
eyes  :  Ram  and  Ruheen,  Purans  and  Koran,  have  many  votaries  ; 
but  neither  does  he  regard." 

1  Cunningham;  Ludlow;  ut  supra.  2  Dabistan,  II.  273. 


THE    LATER    SECTS.  723 

"  Smritis,  Shastras,  and  Veds  differ  in  many  things  :  not  one 
does  he  heed." 

"  O  God !  under  thy  power  all  has  been  done :  nought  is  of 
myself." 

Not  less  sincere  and  fervent  is  the  faith  of  the  mod- 
ern Sikhs,  whose  religious  services  have  been  de- 
scribed as  pervaded  by  a  peculiar  enthusiastic  joy, 
and  their  prayers  by  a  spirit  of  self-examination, 
moral  discipline,  and  universal  love.1 

The  strict  monotheism  of  the  Sikhs  has  a  strongly 
Mohammedan  tone  ;  but  their  freedom  of  spec-    „    , . 

#  l  Seed  in 

ulation  and  protest,  as  regards  Hindu  tradition,  Buddhist 
points  plainly  to  that  element  in  the  national 
character  of  which  Kapila  and  Gotama  were  earlier 
exponents.  The  Hindu  sects  of  the  last  six  centuries 
are  marked  by  a  democratic  spirit,  which  may  rightly 
be  called  the  after-life  of  Buddhism  in  a  people  who 
had  rejected  its  form  and  its  name.  Has  this  harvest 
sprung  from  the  ashes  of  a  martyred  Church?  Is  this 
the  meaning  of  that  prescience  of  K  a  further  shore  " 
beyond  the  ocean  of  death? 

All  the  important  forms  of  Vishnu-worship  2  continue 
the  impulse  of  these  early  reformers,  who  came  to  be 
themselves  regarded  as  his  incarnations.  Rdmd- 
nanda,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  followed  their  example 
in  renouncing  caste.  His  disciples  form  the  largest 
sect  in  Gangetic  India.3  The  numerous  followers  of 
Kabir  reject  polytheism  and  the  service  of  images, 
and  ridicule  the  honors  paid  to  pandits  and  Vedas. 
The  Jai'nas,  whose  special  relations  with  Buddhism 
have  not  been  clearly  made  out,  certainly  combined 

1  Wilkins,  As.  Res.,  I.  289. 

2  Lassen,  IV.  608-616;  Stevenson,  Journ.  R.  A.  S.,  vii.  pp.  64-73  :  Wilson's  Essays 
on  Religion  of  the  Hindus,  vol.  i. 

3  Wilson,  p.  67. 


724  BUDDHISM. 

with  Sankhya  categories  and  formulas  many  Buddhis- 
tic elements ;  such  as  deliverance  of  the  soul  through 
pure  knowledge  alone,  rejection  of  the  Vedas,  sup- 
pression of  the  Brahmanical  gods,  and  substitution 
of  a  series  of  jinas  or  sages  \_jina  is  itself  a  title  of 
Buddha],  in  their  place.1  Admission  to  their  body 
was  independent  of  caste.2  Their  moral  code  is  con- 
tained in  five  great  duties,  —  truth,  chastity,  abstinence 
from  destroying  life,  honesty,  mastery  of  desires ;  in 
four  dho.rmas,  or  forms  of  good  work,  —  liberality, 
gentleness,  penance,  and  piety;  and  in  three  forms 
of  restraint,  —  government  of  the  mind,  of  the  tongue, 
and  of  the  person.3  All  these  are  wholly  Buddhistic, 
and  make  the  admitted  hostility  of  the  Jainas  to  tech- 
nical Buddhism  the  more  remarkable.  It  is  perhaps 
simply  the  sign  that  no  ecclesiastical  bonds  could  con- 
fine these  elements  of  moral  and  spiritual  universality. 
The  revival  of  Brahmanism  itself,  which  seems  to  have 
represented  a  general  movement  towards  more  positive 
theism  than  the  Buddhist  affirmed,  caught  his  demo- 
cratic impulse ;  and  Sankara,  the  great  Vedantist 
leader,  is  said  to  have  broken  up  the  four  original 
castes  in  Malabar  into  seventy-two,  which  was  a 
great  step  towards  destroying  the  principle  itself. 
Lassen  sums  up  the  more  favorable  features  of  later 
Hindu   sects  under  three   heads.      They  lay 

Liberties  of 

the  later  greater  stress  on  piety  and  morality  than  on 
outward  forms  of  worship,  and  make  protest 
against  ritualism.  They  undermine  the  system  of 
caste  by  admitting  persons  of  all  classes  to  religious 
communion.  Their  founders  and  teachers  make  use 
of  the  popular  dialects,  in  writing  and  in  speech.4 

1  Lassen,  IV.  735-787.  2  Wilson,  p.  335. 

3  Wilson,  pp   317,  335.  4  Lassen,  IV.  643. 


THE    LATER    SECTS.  725 

These  later  schools  resume  the  many  elements 
which  have  preceded  them ;  freely  intermingling 
pantheistic,  rationalistic,  and  skeptical  forms  of  Hin- 
duism with  the  monotheism  of  the  old  Mohammedans 
and  the  devout  mysticism  of  the  Sufis. 

Great  numbers  of  maths,  or  monasteries  of  the 
Vaishnava  sects,  are  scattered  over  India,  gov-  The  Vaish. 
erned  and  supported  very  much  in  the  same  navas- 
way  as  similar  Catholic  institutions  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
But  they  are  open  to  all  travellers  or  mendicants ;  and, 
for  the  members,  ingress  and  egress  are  perfectly  free 
at  all  times,  "  any  thing  like  restraint  upon  personal 
liberty  seeming  never  to  have  entered  into  the  concep- 
tion of  any  of  the  religious  legislators  of  the  Hindus." 
"  Their  tenants  are  most  commonly  of  a  quiet,  inoffen- 
sive character ;  and  the  mahatits,  or  superiors,  espec- 
ially, are  men  of  talents  and  respectability."  l 

The  Saivas,  or  Sivaite  sects,  for  the  most  part  rep- 
resent more  exclusive  interests,  beincr  a  fruit  „,,    / . 

/  °  The  Saivas. 

of  Sankara's  great  Brahmanical  revival  in  the 
eighth  century.2  With  few  exceptions,  their  writings 
are  not  in  the  popular  tongue  ;  and  they  avoid  proselyt- 
ing among  the  masses.  In  such  works  as  the  Tamil 
"  Gnan-Potham  "  3  all  the  mystical  philosophy  of  Brah- 
ma-worship is  transferred  to  Siva,  yet  not  without 
Buddhist  elements  to  which  the  change  of  deity  is,  after 
all,  not  improbably  due.  The  least  exclusive  sect  of 
Saivas  is  that  which  worships  Siva  under  the  emblem 
of  the  linga,  a  very  old  cult,  and,  in  general,  by  no 
means  the  immoral  one  it  has  been  represented. 

But  the  Vaishnava  sects  have  always  been  demo- 
cratic. They  have  made  their  ideas  free  to  The  Vaish. 
the  people  by  rejecting  a  specially  sacred  and  navas- 

1  Wilson,  p.  50-53.  2  Lassen,  IV.  618.  3  See  Atner.  Or.  Joum.,  vol.  iv. 


726  BUDDHISM. 

learned  tongue,  and  opening  the  function  of  teacher  to 
all  persons.  A  large  part  of  the  literature  of  the 
Mahrattas,  who  have  proved  the  manly  qualities  of 
a  Hindu  race,  is  written  in  vernacular  Prakrit,  and 
almost  all  this  portion  is  due  to  the  Vaishnavas. 
One  of  these  democratic  poets  wrote  a  commentary  on 
the  Bhagavadgita.  Another  was  famous  for  his  satires 
on  caste  and  ceremonial  forms  ;  while  a  third  was  him- 
self from  the  lowest  of  the  outcasts,  and  a  fourth  was 
a  slave  girl.  The  influence  of  the  ethical  and  relig- 
ious teachings  of  these  Mahratta  poets  on  the  middle 
and  lower  strata  of  society  in  central  India  is  said 
to  have  been  very  important.1 

The  Bauddha-Vaishnavas  believe  that  all  castes 
should  eat  together  on  religious  occasions.  "  At  the 
temple  door  all  the  castes  become  one."  They  have  a 
legend  of  Vishnu,  that  he  brought  saints  from  heaven, 
who  had  been  low-caste  laborers,  and  placed  them  at 
a  banquet  beside  the  Brahmans,  himself  sitting  at  the 
head,  and  even  eating  the  particles  of  rice  that  they 
let  fall.  Another  story  is  of  a  householder  who  made 
a  feast  in  honor  of  his  ancestors,  and  gave  part  of  their 
portion  to  a  poor  pariah  at  his  gate  :  whereat  the 
Brahmans  present  departed  from  the  feast  in  contempt ; 
but  the  ancestors  themselves  came  down  to  take  their 
places,  and  the  table  was  filled.  —  Idolatrous  rites  are 
very  sternly  reproved  by  these  sects. 

"  There  are  priests  who  command  you  to  cut  down  a  living  plant 
to  crown  a  lifeless  stone.  They  call  every  thing  deity,  yet  cut  down 
trees  for  oblation.  They  have  girdles  for  their  loins  with  jingling 
bells,  but  they  are  dumb  in  divine  knowledge.  Ceremonies,  aus- 
terities, and  holy  places  are  trifles  compared  with  the  praise  of 
God." 

1  Stevenson,  on  Maratha  Literature  in  youm.  of  tlie  Bomb.  Branch  of  R.  A.  S., 
vol.  i. 


THE    LATER    SECTS.  727 

One  of  the  Vaishnava  sages  is  represented  as  not 
only  forgiving  men  who  had  robbed  and  maimed  him, 
but  as  pleading  with  Vishnu  to  release  them  from  the 
penalty,  and  give  them  a  place  in  heaven.1 

The  chief  disciples  of  Ramananda  were  twelve  in 
number,   and  for  the   most  part  men  of   the  Tr , . 

r  Kabir. 

lower  and  most  laborious  castes  :  among  them 
were  a  weaver,  a  currier,  a  barber,  and  a  basket- 
maker.  The  most  famous  of  all  was  Kabir,  per- 
haps the  most  radical  reformer  in  Hindu  history ; 
though  it  is  possible  his  name,  which  is  an  appellative 
of  respect,  may  be  mythical,  and  simply  representative 
of  a  great  movement  of  democratic  reaction.2 

The  Dabistan  relates  the  following  stories  of 
Kabir :  — 

"  Hearing  some  learned  Brahmans,  who  had  been  praising  the 
miraculous  power  of  the  Ganges  water  to  wash  away  all  sins,  call 
for  some  of  this  water  for  themselves,  he  ran  to  the  river,  and 
brought  back  his  own  wooden  cup  filled  with  this  sacred  element, 
which  he  offered  to  the  Brahman.  But  being  of  a  caste  from  whose 
hands  a  Brahman  cannot  take  either  food  or  drink,  his  gift  was  re- 
fused, upon  which  he  observed  :  '  You  have  just  now  declared  that 
this  water  purifies  body  and  soul,  and  makes  all  foulness  of  evil 
disappear ;  but  if  it  cannot  render  pure  this  wooden  vase,  it  cer- 
tainly does  not  deserve  your  praises.'  " 

"  Seeing  once  a  gardener's  wife  collecting  flowers  for  the  image 
of  a  deity,  he  said  to  her :  '  In  the  leaves  of  the  flower  lives  the 
soul  of  vegetation,  and  the  idol  to  whom  thou  offerest  flowers  is 
without  feeling  and  dead  :  the  vegetable  is  superior  to  the  mineral. 
If  the  idol  possessed  a  soul,  it  would  chastise  the  cutter,  who,  when 
dividing  its  substance,  placed  his  foot  on  the  idol's  breast.  Go, 
and  venerate  a  wise  and  perfect  man,  who  is  a  manifestation  of 
Vishnu.1  " 3 

The    following    sentences4    from    Kabir    and    his 

1  These  illustrations  are  from  Stevenson,  and  taken  from  the  Bhakta  Vijaya. 

-  Wilson,  pp.  55,  68.  8  Dabistan,  ch.  II.  viii. 

*  Taken  from  Wilson's  selections  in  Essays,  &c,  ut  supra,  pp.  79-90. 


728  BUDDHISM. 

immediate    followers    will    convey    an    idea    of    his 
teaching :  — 

"My  word  is  from  the  beginning ;  it  has  been  deposited  in  life  ; 
there  is  provided  a  basket  for  the  flowers." 

"  He  who  knows  what  life  is  will  seize  the  essence  of  his  own  : 
such  as  it  is  now,  he  will  not  possess  it  again.  The  travellers  are 
hurrying  on,  expecting  to  purchase  where  there  will  be  neither  trade 
nor  market." 

"  Man  wanders  astray  till  he  finds  the  gateway  of  the  word.  But 
he  who  has  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  word  has  done  his 
work." 

"  Live  according  to  your  knowledge  :  fetch  water  for  your  own 
drinking,  nor  demand  it  from  others." 

"  Life  (the  world)  sells  pearls;  but  with  him  who  knows  not  their 
value,  what  can  be  done  ? " 

"  The  goose  (man)  abandons  the  lake,  and  would  lodge  in  a  water- 
jar  !  Kabir  has  called  aloud,  '  Repair  to  your  own  place,  nor  destroy 
your  habitation.1 " 

"  The  dwelling  of  Kabir  is  on  a  mountain  peak,  and  a  narrow 
path  leads  up  to  it :  an  ant  cannot  put  his  foot  on  it,  but  a  pious  man 
may  drive  up  an  ox." 

"  He  who  sows  Rama  never  puts  forth  the  buds  of  wrath.  He 
values  not  the  worthless,  and  he  knows  not  pleasure  nor  pain." 

"  That  a  drop  falls  in  the  ocean,  all  can  perceive  ;  but  that  the 
drop  and  the  ocean  are  one,  few  can  comprehend.  You  and  I  are 
of  one  blood ;  one  life  animates  us  both  ;  from  one  mother  is  the 
world  born  :  what  knowledge  is  this  that  makes  us  separate  ?  Kabir 
has  said,  '  I  have  cried  aloud  from  friendship  to  mankind  :  from  not 
knowing  the  name  of  Rama,  the  world  has  been  swallowed  up  in 
death.' " 

"  Of  what  avail  is  it  to  shave  your  head,  prostrate  your  body  on 
the  ground,  or  immerse  your  body  in  the  stream  ?  Whilst  you  shed 
blood,  you  call  yourself  pure,  and  boast  of  virtues  you  never  display. 
Of  what  benefit  is  cleaning  your  mouth,  counting  your  beads,  and 
bowing  yourself  in  temples,  when,  whilst  you  mutter  your  prayers, 
or  journey  to  Mecca,  deceitfulness  is  in  your  heart  ?  The  Hindu 
fasts  every  eleventh  day ;  the  Mussulman  during  the  Ramazan. 
Who  formed  the  remaining  months,  that  you  should  venerate  but 
one  ?  If  the  Creator  dwell  in  tabernacles,  whose  residence  is  the 
universe  ?     Who  has  beheld  Rama  seated  amongst  images,  or  found 


THE    LATER    SECTS.  729 

him  at  the  shrine  to  which  the  pilgrim  has  directed  his  steps  ?  The 
city  of  Hari  is  to  the  east,  that  of  Ali  to  the  west ;  but  explore 
your  own  heart;  for  there  are  both  Rama  and  Karim." 

"Who  talks  of  the  lies  of  the  Veds  and  Tebs?  Those  who 
understand  not  their  essence.  Behold  but  One  in  all  things :  it  is 
the  second  that  leads  you  astray.  Every  one  is  of  the  same  nature 
with  yourself.  He  whose  is  the  world,  and  whose  are  the  children 
of  Ali  and  Ram,  —  He  is  my  teacher." 

"  Poison  still  remains  in  the  soil,  though  ambrosia  be  sprinkled 
a  hundred  times  :  man  quits  not  his  evil  habits." 

"  If  you  are  a  true  dealer,  open  the  market  of  veracity :  keep 
clean  your  inward  man,  and  repel  oppression  afar  off." 

"  Many  there  are  that  talk,  but  few  that  take  care  to  be  found : 
let  him  pass  on  without  regard,  who  practises  not  what  he  pro- 
fesses." 

"Check  the  tongue,  associate  with  the  wise,  investigate  the 
teacher's  words." 

"  Affection  is  the  garment  in  which  man  dresses  for  the  dance  : 
consign  yourself,  hand  and  foot,  to  him  whose  body  and  soul  are 
truth." 

"  Let  truth  be  your  rate  of  interest,  and  fix  it  in  your  heart." 

"  A  real  diamond  should  be  purchased  :  the  mock  gem  is  waste 
of  capital." 

"  Pride  of  intellect  is  manifold :  now  a  thief,  now  a  liar,  now  a 
murderer  ;  men,  sages,  gods,  have  run  after  it  in  vain.  Its  mansion 
has  a  hundred  gates." 

"  When  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  both  fall  into  the  well." 

"Yet  the  master  is  helpless  when  the  scholar  is  inapt.  It  is 
blowing  through  a  bamboo  to  teach  wisdom  to  the  dull." 

"  The  tree  bears  not  fruit  for  itself,  nor  for  itself  does  the  stream 
collect  its  waters  :  for  the  good  of  others  only  does  the  sage  assume 
a  bodily  shape." 

"  I  have  wept  for  mankind,  but  no  one  has  wept  with  me  :  he  will 
join  in  my  tears,  who  comprehends  the  word." 

"  Kabir  cries  aloud  to  his  fellows :  <  Ascend  the  sandal  ridge  ; 
whether  there  be  a  road  prepared  or  not,  what  matters  it  to  me  ? '  " 

"All  have  exclaimed,  'Master,  master,'  but  to  me  this  doubt 
arises  :  how  can  they  sit  down  with  the  master  whom  they  do  not 
know  ? " 

It  is  noteworthy  that  while  the  disciple  of  this  sect 
is  bound   to   devote   himself  to  his  spiritual  guru  or 


730  BUDDHISM. 

teacher,  with  implicit  obedience,  he  is  warned  not  to  do 
so  till  he  has  thoroughly  investigated  his  character  and 
doctrine  :  to  act  blindly  and  slavishly  is  the  highest 
wrong. 

Another  sect  of  Rama' worshippers  is  that  of  Dadu, 
the  cotton-cleaner,   also  a  disciple  of  Kabir. 

Dadu.  r 

Here  are  a  few  of  his  sentences : 1  — 

"  He  is  my  God,  who  maketh  all  things  perfect.  Meditate  on 
Him  in  whose  hands  are  life  and  death.  He  provideth  for  all.  He 
is  my  friend." 

"  In  all  your  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  let  there  be  faith  in 
God.  O  foolish  one  !  God  is  not  far  from  you.  You  are  ignorant ; 
but  he  knoweth  every  thing,  and  is  careful  in  bestowing." 

"  Care  can  avail  nothing  :  it  devoureth  life  ;  for  those  things  shall 
happen  which  God  shall  direct." 

"He  who  causes  all  living  things  to  be  giveth  milk  to  their 
mouths,  while  yet  in  the  womb." 

"  Oh,  forget  not,  my  brother,  that  God's  power  is  always  with  you  : 
there  is  a  formidable  pass  within  you,  and  crowds  of  evil  passions 
flock  to  it ;  therefore  comprehend  God." 

"  He  who  hath  but  one  grain  of  the  love  of  God  shall  be  re- 
leased from  all  his  sinful  doubts  and  actions.  Who  need  cook  or 
grind  ?     Wherever  you  cast  your  eyes,  ye  may  see  provisions." 

"  I  take  for  my  spiritual  food  the  water  and  the  leaf  of  Ram  :  for 
the  world  I  care  not,  but  God's  love  is  unfathomable." 

"  Whatever  is  God's  will  shall  surely  happen :  therefore  do  not 
destroy  yourselves  by  anxiety,  but  listen." 

"  Fix  your  heart  on  God,  and  be  humble  as  though  you  were 
dead." 

"  Have  no  desires,  but  accept  what  circumstances  may  bring  you  : 
whatever  God  pleaseth  to  direct  can  never  be  wrong.  Go  not 
about,  tearing  from  the  tree  which  is  invisible." 

"  Dadu  saith,  '  Do  unto  me,  O  God  !  as  thou  thinkest  best :  I  am 
obedient  unto  thee.  My  disciples,  behold  no  other  God,  go  no- 
where but  to  Him.'  " 

"  Condemn  nothing  the  Creator  hath  made.  We  are  not  creators. 
He  can  make  what  He  will :  we  can  make  nothing." 

'  Wilson,  tit  supra,  pp.  106-113.  From  Siddons's  translation  in  the  Jourtial  of  the 
Bengal  Society. 


THE    LATER    SECTS.  73 T 

"  Meditate  on  the  mysterious  affinity  between  God  and  the  soul." 

"  Even  as  you  see  your  countenance  reflected  in  a  mirror,  or 
your  shadow  in  still  water,  so  behold  Ram  in  your  minds,  because 
He  is  with  all." 

"  He  that  formed  the  mind  made  it  as  it  were  a  temple  for  him- 
self to  dwell  in.  Receive  that  which  is  perfect  into  your  hearts : 
abandon  all  things  for  the  love  of  God." 

"  God  ever  fostereth  his  creatures  ;  even  as  a  mother  serves  her 
offspring,  and  keepeth  it  from  harm." 

"  O  God  who  art  the  truth  !  grant  me  contentment,  love,  devotion, 
faith.  Thy  servant  Dadu  prayeth  for  true  patience,  and  that  he 
may  be  devoted  to  thee. 

"  Dadu  saith,  '  My  earnings  are  God.  He  is  my  food  and  my 
supporter.  God  is  my  clothing  and  my  dwelling.  He  is  my  ruler, 
my  body,  and  my  soul.' " 

"  Listen  to  God's  admonitions,  and  you  will  care  not  for  hunger 
nor  thirst,  for  heat  nor  cold.  If  ye  subdue  the  imperfections  of 
your  flesh,  you  will  think  only  of  God.  When  you  cease  to  call  on 
Him,  they  will  return  to  you." 

"  Dadu  loved  Rama  without  ceasing :  he  partook  of  his  spiritual 
essence,  and  constantly  examined  the  mirror  within  him  ;  he  over- 
came all  evil  inclinations  :  wherefore  the  light  of  Rama  will  shine 
upon  him." 

"Sit  humbly  at  the  foot  of  God,  and  rid  yourselves  of  bodily 
impurity." 

"  Be  fearless  and  guide  yourselves  towards  the  light  of  God : 
there  neither  sword  nor  poison  have  power  to  destroy,  and  sin 
cannot  enter." 

"  Afford  help  also  to  the  poor  stranger." 

"  Meditate  on  Him  by  whom  all  things  were  made.  Pundits  and 
Qazis  are  fools  :  of  what  avail  are  the  heaps  of  books  they  have 
compiled  ?  " 

"  Wear  not  away  your  lives  by  studying  the  Vedas.  Meditate  on 
God,  the  beginning  and  the  end." 

"  Do  nothing,  O  man  !  till  thou  hast  thoroughly  sifted  thy  inten- 
tions :  acquaint  thyself  thoroughly  with  the  purity  of  thy  wishes, 
that  thou  mayest  be  absorbed  in  God.  Endeavor  to  gain  Him  :  nor 
hesitate  to  restore  your  soul,  when  required,  to  that  abode  from 
whence  it  came." 

The  belief  of  the  followers  of  Bdbd-ldl  is  a  combina- 


732  BUDDHISM. 

tion  of  the  Vedanta  and  Sufi  tenets.     It  illustrates  in 
like  manner  that  union    of   speculative  mys- 

Baba-lal.  . 

ticism  with  practical  benevolence,  of  which 
Buddhism  was  the  earliest  expression.  This  teacher, 
when  asked  which  is  the  best  religion,  replied  :  — 

"  The  creed  of  the  lover  differs  from  other  creeds.  God  is  the 
faith  and  creed  of  those  who  love  him.  To  do  good  is  the  best  for 
the  follower  of  every  faith.  And,  as  Hafiz  says, —  The  object  of 
all  religions  is  alike :  all  men  seek  their  beloved.  What  is  the 
difference  between  prudent  and  wild  ?  All  the  world  is  love's  dwell- 
ing :  why  talk  of  a  mosque  or  a  church  ? " 

The  following  sentences :  illustrate  his  teaching  :  — 

"With  whom  should  the  fakir  cultivate  intimacy?  With  the 
lord  of  loveliness.  To  whom  be  a  stranger  ?  To  covetousness, 
anger,  envy,  falsehood,  malice.  Should  he  wear  garments  or  go 
naked  ?  Nudity  is  excusable  only  in  the  insane.  The  love  of  God 
does  not  depend  on  a  cap  or  a  coat.  How  conduct  himself?  He 
should  perform  what  he  promises,  and  not  promise  what  he  cannot 
perform." 

"  Should  evil  be  done  to  evil-doers  ?  He  should  do  evil  to  none. 
Hafiz  says,  '  The  repose  of  the  two  worlds  depends  on  two  rules, 
kindness  to  friends  and  gentleness  to  foes.' " 

"Is  it  necessary  for  a  fakir  to  withdraw  from  the  world  ?  What 
is  the  world  ?  Forgetfulness  of  God,  not  clothes,  nor  wealth,  nor 
wife,  nor  offspring." 

"  What  is  the  fakir's  passion  ?  Knowledge  of  God.  What  his 
power  ?  Impotence.  What  his  wisdom  ?  Devotion  of  the  heart 
to  the  heart's  Lord.  What  is  the  fakir's  dwelling  ?  God's  creatures. 
His  kingdom  ?     God." 

"  How  do  the  supreme  soul  and  the  living  [individual]  soul  differ  ? 
The  supreme  soul  is  beyond  accident,  but  the  living  soul  is  afflicted 
by  sense  and  passion.  Happiness  is  attained  only  in  reunion  with 
the  One,  when  the  dispersed  portions  combine  again  with  it,  as  the 
drops  of  water  with  the  parent  stream." 

"  The  body  only  separates  from  God.  Blessed  be  the  moment 
when  I  shall  lift  the  veil  from  off  that  face.  The  veil  of  the  face 
of  my  beloved  is  the  dust  of  my  body." 

1  Wilson,  I.  349,  350. 


VI. 

BUDDHIST     CIVILIZATION. 


BUDDHIST     CIVILIZATION. 


A  S  a  distinctive  religion,  Buddhism  has  vanished 
"^■^   from  its  native  soil ;    surviving  only  in   „ 

o  J  Expansion. 

those  qualities  of  thought  and  sentiment  out  of 
which  it  grew,  and  to  which,  in  their  Hindu  forms,  it 
gave  fresh  vigor.  But,  in  the  view  of  universal  relig- 
ion, this  is  its  real  triumph.  Positive  religions  affirm 
their  own  substance  to  be  sacrifice,  —  of  the  lower  to 
the  higher,  of  the  special  to  the  ideal.  Nature  takes 
them  at  their  word.  Their  formulas,  that  seemed 
final,  pass  ;  their  sacred  names  are  no  longer  pro- 
nounced with  awe ;  their  proscriptive  masterships  are 
set  aside ;  their  body  perishes,  and  they  are  changed. 
But  their  after-life  is  their  best.  The  shell  of  symbol 
thrown  aside,  the  immortal  essence  escapes,  to  work 
freely  as  a  universal  force,  and  in  the  whole  move- 
ment of  human  life. 

So  with  Buddhism  in  India.  Its  karma  passed  into 
a  new  soul.  Its  sainthood  returned  from  the  gates  of 
nirvana,  to  assume  fresh  forms  ;  veiled  by  new  names 
and  relations,  wherein  the  closer  eye  may  discern  its 
life-beyond-death.  But  its  distinctive  triumphs  have 
been  without  the  limits  of  India.  It  justified  itself  also 
by  its  expansive  power.  In  the  seventh  century  Hiouen 
Thsang  found,  even  in  the  most  flourishing  Buddhist 


736  BUDDHISM. 

states,  many  signs  of  its  approaching  decay,  —  power- 
ful heresies,  deserted  monasteries,  and  fallen  shrines. 
Two  more  centuries,  and  the  faith  of  fifteen  hundred 
years  is  cast  out:  the  name  of  Gotama  Buddha,  in 
India,  has  had  its  day.  The  peaceful  debates  of  its 
schools,  that  had  divided  every  great  Hindu  state, 
the  polemics  of  its  moral  and  metaphysical  sects,  the 
Great  and  Little  Vehicles,  shall  no  more  be  heard. 
The  first  act  of  a  darker  drama  has  swept  away  the 
preachers  of  peace  :  the  second  is  at  hand ;  for  the 
conquering  Moslem  approaches  from  the  north.  The 
persecution  of  the  Buddhists  is  the  natural  precursor 
of  a  social  disunity  which  lays  this  magnificent  em- 
pire at  the  mercy  of  a  horde  of  invaders. 

Persecution  only  roused  the  zeal  of  those  messen- 
gers of  mercy  and  release.  They  flocked  north,  south, 
east,  and  west ;  bearing  the  relics  of  their  saints,  and 
the  writings  of  their  schools,  and  planting  their  seats 
of  culture  in  the  desert  and  the  populous  place.  But 
they  had  not  waited  for  persecution.  For  two  centu- 
ries or  more  from  the  death  of  Gotama,  there  are  no 
records  of  Buddhist  expansion,  nor  signs  of  the  use 
of  written  memorials  by  the  new  faith.1  Yet  at  the 
end  of  that  time  it  had  become  the  state  religion  of 
northern  India.  At  the  close  of  the  first  Christian 
century  it  had  gone  far  towards  converting  Ceylon, 
Kashmir,  Kabulistan,  and  southern  Tartary.  Even 
in  China,  princes  had  adopted  it,  and  translations  of 
Buddhist  writings  overflowed  this  empire  of  rational- 
ists.2 The  earliest  missionaries  had  appeared  in  the 
third  century  b.c.  Six  centuries  afterwards  India  was 
a  holy  land  of  Chinese  pilgrimage.  From  Ceylon 
this  living   and  welcome  belief  spread  on  to  further 

1  Koeppen,  I.  184.  2  Lassen,  II.  1078. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  737 

India,  Burmah,  Siam,  and  the  Eastern  Archipelago. 
From  northern  India  it  reached  away  over  the  Thi- 
betan steppes ;  from  China  to  Korea  and  Japan.1 
Certain  Chinese  records  of  the  fifth  century,  combined 
with  a  few  slight  analogies,  mythological  and  other, 
have  been  held  sufficient,  with  not  a  few  scholars,  to 
prove  that  it  must  have  penetrated  even  to  Mexico.2 
As  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  civilization  more  in 
contrast  with  Buddhism  than  the  Mexican,  such  theo- 
ries can  only  be  regarded  as  signs  of  the  impression 
made  by  the  expansive  energy  of  this  religion  on  the 
European  mind.3  They  are  quite  unimportant  beside 
the  marvellous  record  of  history,  that,  after  twenty-five 
centuries  of  life,  Buddhism  is,  with  all  its  gospel  of  sor- 
row, at  present  the  most  widely  spread  religion  of  the 
East ;  that  its  adherents  outnumber  those  of  Brahma 
three  to  one ;  and  that  they  constitute  at  the  lowest 
estimate  a  quarter  of  the  human  race. 

How  impressive  is  Father  Hue's  account  of  the 
wandering  Lamas,  a  body  of  men  whose  vocation  is 
not  indeed  that  of  preaching,  but  who  carry  with  them 
their  opinions  and  ceremonies,  and  are  doubtless  the 
practical  propagators  of  the  faith  !  "  They  visit  all 
accessible  countries.  There  is  not  a  river  they  have 
not  crossed,  a  mountain  they  have  not  ascended,  a 
people  among  whom  they  have  not  lived,  and  of 
whom  they  do  not  know  the  manners  and  the  lan- 
guage. One  would  say  they  are  under  the  influence 
of   some    mysterious   power  which    drives   them  on- 


1  Lassen,  IV.  710;  Miiller,  Sc.  of  Lang.,  I.  147;  Jmirn.  R.  A.  S.,  VI.  278. 

2  This  theory,  for  which  see  Lassen  (IV.  754)  and  Wuttke  (I.  348),  has  been  fully  dis- 
posed of  by  J.  G.  Miiller,  Gesch.  d.  Avier.  Urreligionen  (Basel,  1S67),  pp.  9,  490. 

3  So  Pococke  (India  in  Greece,  London,  1S52)  displayed  great  ingenuity  in  an  attempt 
to  trace  every  name  in  Greek  mythology,  geography,  and  history  to  a  Buddhist  origin,  on 
linguistic  grounds  alone. 

47 


738  BUDDHISM. 

wards ;  and  it  seems  as  if  God  had  caused  to  flow 
in  their  veins  something  of  that  motive  force  which 
moves  worlds  forwards  in  their  course."1  This  mys- 
terious instinct  has  possessed  Buddhism  from  the 
beginning.  It  must  spring  in  part  from  a  sense  of 
universality,  —  of  duties,  needs,  sympathies,  and  hopes, 
felt  as  common  to  all  mankind.  It  is  the  thirst  for  com- 
munion, a  democratic  religious  faith  that  knows  no 
bounds  of  country,  creed,  nor  name.  Even  that  vaga- 
bond life,  that  vague,  restless  roving  which  reminded 
this  Christian  missionary  of  "The  Wandering  Jew," 
is  evidently  a  relic  of  the  primitive  ardor  of  Buddhism 
to  emancipate  the  world.  What  motive  power  it  must 
have  had  in  the  day  of  its  definite  and  conscious 
aims  ! 

The  direct  effects  of  Gotama's  practical,  peaceful, 
philanthropic  gospel  are  to  be  studied  in  the 
edicts  of  king  Asoka,  inscribed  on  monumental 
rocks  and  pillars  in  various  parts  of  northern  India.2 
These  inscriptions  record  at  once  the  legislation  of 
this  Buddhist  ruler,  and  his  convictions  and  motives. 
They  announce  themselves  as  his  own  words,  cut  in 
the  stone  at  his  command,  and  their  authenticity  is 
beyond  question.  The  history  of  As'oka,  as  derived 
from  Singhalese  records  and  from  these  monuments, 
is  a  wonderful  one.     About   the  middle  of  the  third 


1  Hue's  Journey,  &c,  I.  117. 

2  For  the  substance  of  these  remarkable  records,  and  the  evidences  of  their  antiquity 
and  authorship,  see  Lassen,  II.  214-270;  Muir's  Sansk.  Texts,  vol.  ii. ;  and  Koeppen,  I. 
173-178.  Consult  also  Sykes's  Notes,  &c,  in  7ourn.  R.  A  ■  S.,  vol.  vi.  Professor  Wilson 
reviewed  Prinsep's  translation  of  them,  in  Journ.  R-  A.  S.,  vol.  xii.  In  a  later  review 
(vol.  xvi- )  he  withdraws  his  doubts  as  to  their  Buddhistic  origin.  Buddhism  is  not  men- 
tioned by  name,  but  the  emblems  are  unmistakable.  The  inscriptions  are  written  in  a 
"  corrupt  Sanskrit,"  closely  resembling  Pali,  the  language  in  which  the  oldest  works  of 
Buddhism  are  written,  and  which  was  vernacular  in  northern  India  when  it  arose  (Muir, 
II.  72,  104).  The  name  they  give  the  king  is  Piyadasi  (the  benevolent),  a  term  applied 
to  Asoka,  in  Buddhist  writings.     Lassen,  II.  223. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  739 

century  B.C.  a  prince  succeeded  to  the  crown  of 
Pataliputra,  whose  passions  earned  him  the  title  of 
"the  wrathful.'"  He  was  a  devoted  follower  of  the 
Brahmans,  but  stained,  according  to  tradition,  with 
the  blood  of  a  brother,  who  stood  in  the  way  of 
his  succession  to  the  throne.  In  four  years  he  had 
become  a  Buddhist  disciple.  His  character  changed 
with  his  faith.  Instead  of  "the  wrathful"  he  was 
called  "the  just."  "Every  good  man,"  he  said,  "will 
I  hold  as  my  own  child."  He  caused  inns  to  be  built, 
and  wells  opened,  and  trees  planted  along  the  public 
roads,  to  give  shelter  and  refreshment  for  man  and 
beast.  He  regulated  the  treatment  of  animals  through- 
out his  dominions  according  to  Buddhist  precepts,  and 
forbade  their  slaughter  for  sacrificial  purposes.  It  is 
probable  that  he  abolished  the  death  penalty,  and 
certain  that  he  gradually  narrowed  its  use,  until 
it  became  almost,  if  not  quite,  obsolete.  His  treat- 
ment of  prisoners  taken  in  war  was  of  the  most  hu- 
mane nature.  He  recognized  freedom  of  thought  and 
established  universal  toleration. 
The  inscriptions  say  :  — 

"  The  king,  beloved  of  the  gods,  honors  every  form  of  religious 
faith  ;  but  considers  no  gift  nor  honor  so  much  as  the  increase  of 
the  substance  of  religion  ;  whereof  this  is  the  root,  —  to  reverence 
one's  own  faith,  and  never  to  revile  that  of  others.  Whoever  acts 
differently  injures  his  own  religion,  while  he  wrongs  another's.  The 
texts  of  all  forms  of  religion  shall  be  followed,  under  my  protection. 
Duty  is  in  respect  and  service.  Alms  and  pious  demonstrations 
are  of  no'  worth  compared  with  the  loving-kindness  of  religion. 
The  festival  that  bears  great  fruit  is  the  festival  of  duty.  The 
king's  purpose  is  to  increase  the  mercy,  charity,  truth,  kindness, 
and  piety  of  all  mankind.  There  is  no  gift  like  the  gift  of  virtue. 
Good  is  liberality ;  good  it  is  to  harm  no  living  creature  ;  good  to 
abstain  from  slander ;  good  is  the  care  of  one's  parents,  kindness 
to  relatives,  children,  friends,  slaves.  —  That  these  good  things  may 


740  BUDDHISM. 

increase,  the  king  and  his  descendants  shall  maintain  the  law, 
Ministers  of  morals  shall  everywhere  aid  the  charitable  and  good. 
I  will  always  hear  my  people's  voice.  I  distribute  my  wealth  for 
the  good  of  all  mankind,  for  which  I  am  ever  laboring." ' 

To  the  Brahmans,  whose  disciplines  he  had  re- 
nounced, he  paid  respect,  and  gave  substantial  favors 
to  such  of  them  as  he  thought  sincere  and  liberal  in 
their  spirit.  He  built  monasteries  for  the  Buddhists  ; 
regulated  their  cultus ;  held  their  most  important 
synod,  to  whose  labors  the  oldest  sutras  are  probably 
due ;  and  spared  no  effort  to  make  their  preaching 
effectual.  He  is  believed  to  have  erected  eighty-four 
thousand  topes,  or  relic  shrines ;  probably  a  mystical 
number.  He  sent  friendly  embassies  to  foreign  lands, 
to  propagate  the  faith.  His  civil  regulations  showed 
the  highest  regard  for  justice  and  humanity.  He 
appointed  a  corps  of  officers  to  keep  him  informed,  at 
all  times,  of  every  thing  in  the  condition  of  his  people 
that  required  his  attention,  fearing  only  lest  any  pri- 
vate pleasure  should  distract  his  mind  from  the  care 
of  their  peace.  He  instituted  another  class  of  officers 
for  the  purpose  of  -preventing  crime;  placing  them 
at  the  outskirts  of  towns  where  crowds  were  wont 
to  assemble,  commissioned  to  dissuade  people  from 
wrong-doing  without  resorting  to  violence.  Finally, 
he  declared  that  he  could  not,  with  all  these  endeavors, 
,  satisfy  his  sense  of  responsibility,  as  a  king,  for  his 
people's  moral  and  social  condition,  nor  his  inmost 
desire  for  their  good.  "There  is  no  higher  duty  than 
to  work  for  the  good  of  the  whole  world." 

Such    are   the    earliest    products    of    Buddhism    in 
personal  life,  which  at  this   distance  of  time  can  be 

1  These  extracts  are  from  Wilson's  revision  of  Prinsep's  translation,  and  from  Lassen's 
full  account  of  As'oka. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  74I 

clearly  discerned.  Asoka  has  been  called  "the  Budd- 
hist Constantine "  from  his  temporal  services  to  this 
gospel  of  the  East ;  but,  as  a  ruler,  he  seems  to  re- 
semble the  great  heathen  emperor,  Marcus  Aurelius, 
far  more  than  that  most  unscrupulous  patron  of  Chris- 
tianity. And  even  if  the  records  of  his  life  and 
government  were  less  fully  accredited  than,  as  a 
whole,  they  really  are,  the  conception  of  such  a  mon- 
arch, at  that  epoch  and  in  that  quarter  of  the  world, 
would  be  a  fact  quite  as  interesting  as  the  actual 
man. 

The  story  of  his  son,  Kunala  (so  called  from  the 
beauty  of  his  eyes),  who,  after  being  deprived  Kunala 
of  these  organs  in  consequence  of  the  false 
testimony  of  an  unprincipled  and  cruel  woman,  inter- 
cedes to  save  her  from  the  consequences  of  her  crimes, 
may  or  may  not  be  historical,  but  has  a  like  value  as 
testimony  to  a  moral  ideal. 

The  account  given  in  the  Mahavansa,  of  Dushta- 
gamini,  who  reigned  in  Ceylon  in  the  second  Dushtaga- 
century  B.C.,  is  involved,  as  indeed  is  this  mini- 
whole  sacred  chronicle,  in  a  mass  of  mythical  legend  ; 
but  it  bears  witness  none  the  less  positively  to  the 
practical  excellence  of  Buddhism.1  This  monarch, 
also,  is  reported  to  have  been  a  model  of  devotion  to 
the  interests  of  his  people,  moral,  industrial,  social, 
and  aesthetic.  He  especially  furthered  agriculture, 
and  opened  roads  through  his  dominions.  Like 
Asoka,  he  built  hospitals,  and  endowed  monasteries 
with  the  greatest  zeal.  Both  these  kings  seem  to 
have  contributed  to  the  improvement  of  Hindu  archi- 
tecture, by  erecting  religious  edifices  on  a  magnificent 

1  See  Lassen,  II.  421-430  ;  Mahavansa  (Tumour),  ch.  xxiv.-xxxiii. 


742  BUDDHISM. 

scale.     The  description    of   Dushtagamini's  pious  la- 
bors in  erecting  the  stupendous  dagop  of  Ruanvelli,  to 
fulfil   the   prediction    of   his   ancestors    regarding    his 
own  reign,  reminds  us  in   many  ways   of  the  building 
of  Solomon's  Temple  to  Jehovah  ;    but  the  mythical 
splendors  that  invest  the  Buddhist  work   are   nowise 
paralleled  by  Hebrew  tradition.     The  noble  edict  is 
recorded  of  this  king,  that  no  part  of  his  great  work 
should  be  accomplished  by  unpaid  labor.1     When,  at 
the  close  of  life,  his  good  deeds  to  the  poor  and  in  fur- 
therance of  his  faith,  are  enumerated  in  his  presence,  in 
order  to  overcome  his  natural  shrinking  from  death,  — 
he  replies  :  "With  these  works  I  am  not  satisfied  :  the 
two  alms-deeds  which  I  did  while  I  was  in  want,  and 
which  I  performed  without  regarding  my  life,  I  prefer 
to  the  whole."     Then,  calling  his  brother,  who  is  to 
be  his  successor,  he  charges  him  not  only  to  complete 
the  religious  works  thus  begun,  failing  in  no  form  of 
benevolence  or  of  care  for  the  faith,  but  to  ''do  no 
harm  to  the  people,  and  to  rule  the  kingdom  with  jus- 
tice ;  "  and  then  lies  silently  down  to  die,  facing  the 
dagop   he    had    made,   while    the    devatas    (celestial 
beings)   invite    him  in  the  air,  saying,  "  Our  lord  is 
glorious  and  possesses  longer  life  :  come  then  hither, 
come  then  hither."     Beseeching  them  to  suffer  him, 
as  long  as  he  lives,  to  hear  the  teaching  of  the  faith, 
he  raises  his  hand.     The  movement  is   mistaken  by 
the  priests  for  a  gesture  of  fear,  and  they  say  to  one 
another:  "There  is  no  one  that  does  not  fear  death." 
But  the  king,  having  expired,   is  borne   away  in   a 
chariot,  like  a  man  awakened  out  of  a  deep  sleep  ; 
and  then,  to  show  his  glory  to  the  people,  he  reappears 
in  splendor,  driving   thrice   around   the   sacred  pile, 

1  Mahav.-.  ch.  xxx. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  743 

that  they  may   see   the   heavenly  glory   he    has    at- 
tained.1 

It  is  an  unreliable  version  which  ascribes  to  this 
king  a  harem  of  Solomonic  proportions  :  there  is  not, 
in  the  whole  story  of  his  reign,  the  faintest  sign  of  sen- 
suality nor  of  any  other  personal  vice. 

A  similar  record  is  given  of  several  other  Buddhist 
rulers  of  Ceylon  in  the  continuation  of  the  ceykmese 
Mahavansa.  Some  of  these  were  scholars  leseuds- 
and  writers,  and  all  were  patrons  of  literature  and 
art.2  Traditions  of  the  same  moral  tone  celebrate 
the  virtues  of  the  earliest  Buddhist  rulers  of  Thibet.3 
One  of  the  Singhalese  kings  is  described  as  having, 
among  other  marvellous  powers,  such  as  bringing  on 
rain  by  his  piety,  a  much  better  one ;  namely,  that  of 
converting  rogues  by  good  counsel.  He  thus  puts  a  stop 
to  the  bad  practices  of  great  numbers  of  thieves,  while 
satisfying  his  people,  who  insist  on  their  punishment, 
by  showing  dead  bodies,  on  which  those  penalties 
had  been  inflicted  which  the  law  would  have  visited 
on  the  living  offenders.4  Another  king,  of  very  bar- 
barous tendencies,  dissuaded  from  war  by  Buddhist 
priests,  who  teach  him  the  superior  virtue  of  peace  and 
harmony,  thereupon  gives  up  the  country  he  has  won, 
and  returns  to  his  own.5 

Leaving  these  old  traditions,  we  turn  to  the  present 
Buddhists  of  Thibet.  All  travellers  testify  to  Buddhism 
their  simplicity,  gentleness,  and  freedom  from  inThibet- 
sensual  excesses.  Hue  tells  us  their  theory  is  that 
"all  men  are  brothers."6  "  The  regent  of  Lha-Ssa," 
he    says,    "did   not   appear    surprised    at    any    thing 

1  Mahavansa,  ch.  xxxii.  2  See  abstract  in  Lassen,  IV.  279-350. 

3  Koeppen,  II.  65,  73.  *  Mahav.,  ch.  xxxvi.  B  Ibid.  (Upham),  ch.  lxx. 

0  Travels  through  Thibet,  I.  43,  170,  II.  40,  107. 


744  BUDDHISM. 

in  Christian  teaching,  but  incessantly  repeated,  (  Your 
religion  is  like  our  own  :  the  truths  are  the  same,  we 
only  differ  in  the  explanation.' "  The  good  mission- 
ary indeed  found  it  not  easy  to  understand  the  panthe- 
ism into  which  this  liberal  and  hospitable  faith  resolved 
itself.  Yet  nothing  could  be  finer,  even  as  manners 
only,  than  the  cordiality  and  courage  with  which  the 
Buddhist  ruler  entered  into  free  inquiry  as  to  the 
respective  merits  of  his  own  and  the  foreign  belief, 
promising  to  adopt  the  latter,  if  it  should  appear  to  be 
the  better  one.1  The  Thibetans  exhibit  none  of  that  ex- 
clusiveness  towards  foreigners  which  the  Chinese  and 
other  Asiatic  nations  have  been  driven  into  adopting. 
They  seem  to  have  even  a  careful  interest  in  strangers, 
and  lose  no  opportunity  of  kindly  service.  The  mis- 
sionaries, near  to  perishing  of  hunger  and  wet  in  the 
desert,  for  lack  of  fire  and  fuel,  were  accosted  by  a 
band  of  Tartars,  leading  a  laden  camel :  "  My  lords 
Lamas,  the  sky  has  fallen  to-day  :  doubtless  you  have 
not  been  able  to  light  your  fire  ;  but  men  are  all  brothers 
and  belong  to  one  another,  and  the  lay  should  serve 
the  holy  ;  so  we  are  come  to  light  your  fire  for  you."2 
When  the  animals  of  a  caravan  go  astray,  whoever 
is  in  the  neighborhood  must  go  seek  them  ;  and,  if  they 
cannot  be  found,  give  others  in  their  place.3  "  We 
will  search  for  your  horses,"  said  the  Tartar  chief  to 
Hue,  "  and,  if  they  are  not  found,  you  shall  choose 
at  pleasure  from  all  our  herds.  We  wish  you  to  leave 
us  in  peace  as  you  came."  Contrast  these  civil  tribes 
with  their  ancestors,  the  barbarian  hordes  of  Tschingis- 
khan,  following  the  wolf's  head  on  their  banners  to 
incessant  ravin,  piling  pyramids  of  human  heads 
along  their  path,  merciless  alike  to  the  weak  and  the 

1  Travels  through  Thibet,  II.  203.  2  Ibid.,  I.  43-  3  It>id.,  I-  &4- 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  745 

strong.1  Security  of  life  and  property  reigns  among 
them  to  a  degree  undreamed  of  in  Europe  during  the 
Middle  Ages ;  and  the  change  is  almost  entirely  the 
work  of  Lamaism.2  "The  humane  doctrine  of 
Buddha  has  greatly  softened,  if  it  has  not  eradicated 
their  old  savage  traits.3  Thus  women  in  Tartary  are 
in  a  more  independent  position  than  is  usual  in  the 
East.  They  come  and  go  as  they  please,  are  active, 
cheerful,  and  of  free  bearing,  notwithstanding  the  old 
marriage  regulations  which  still  oppress  the  sex.4 
Hue  says  that  all  but  the  highest  classes  are  in  a  mild 
form  of  slavery ;  but  it  is  hard  to  understand  in  what 
sense  this  is  true,  since  their  mode  of  life  is  precisely 
that  of  their  masters,  and,  if  they  enter  the  tents  of 
the  latter,  they  are  always  offered  the  customary 
courtesies. 

It  was  through  Buddhism  that  literature  and  law 
were  introduced  among  the  rude  tribes  of  Thi- 

&  Thibetan 

bet.  The  traditions  tell  us  of  a  hundred  literature 
translators  and  teachers  of  the  sacred  books  and  aw' 
invited  from  India  in  the  ninth  century,  who  at  last 
completed  this  new  gospel  in  a  hundred  folio  vol- 
umes,5 to  be  revised  and  retranslated  five  centuries 
later  under  the  auspices  of  the  great  Buddhist  monarch, 
Kublai  Khan.  Previous  to  this  time,  Buddhist  scholars 
had  constructed  a  new  alphabet  for  the  Mongolian 
tribes.6 

The  superstitious  and  savage  Mongols  who  mas- 
tered these  highlands  in  the  thirteenth  century  were 
met  and  controlled  by  the  devotion  of  a  Buddhist 
monk,  Thsong-kha-pa,  who  revived  the  best  elements 

1  Wuttke,  I.  244-248.  2  Koeppen,  I.  482.  3  Ibid.,  from  Neumann. 

4  Hue,  I.  1S5.  A  similar  position  is  accorded  to  women  in  Siam.  Jaunted  of  Indian 
Archipelago,  1847. 

6  Lassen,  IV.  716.  6  Koeppen,  II.  99-101. 


746  BUDDHISM. 

of  primitive  Buddhism,  then  rapidly  yielding  to  the 
superstitions  of  a  degraded  form  of  Siva-worship. 
This  earnest  preacher  of  devout  meditation  and  social 
order  and  harmony,  setting  bounds  to  the  coarse  feti- 
chism  of  the  nomads,  directed  the  religious  sentiment 
to  ideas,  and  to  the  broader  forms  and  disciplines  that 
ideas  demand.  He  was  in  fact  the  father  of  the  real 
Catholic  Church  of  Central  Asia.  The  true  Thibetan 
papacy  of  the  "yellow  hat"  Lamas,  as  distinguished 
from  the  older  and  ruder  "red  hat"  priests,  goes  back 
to  Thsong-kha-pa.  He  came  to  be  venerated  as  first 
incarnation  of  the  phenomenal  portion  of  the  Buddha, 
which  perpetually  renews  itself  by  transmigration,  to 
preserve  the  unity  of  his  Church,  in  an  endless  suc- 
cession of  Dalai  Lamas,  or  "  Oceans  of  Sanctity."1 
It  is  not  easy  to  overestimate  the  benefits  of  that 
incessant  emphasis  on  benevolent,  and  even 

Civilizing  x  m  .  . 

power  of  tender  and  compassionate  sentiments,  which 
Buddhism.  everyWhere  accompanied  the  effort  to  unite 
these  tribes  in  a  universal  church.  Through  all  the 
grossness  into  which  Buddhism  has  degenerated,  we 
can  trace  the  invincible  leaven  of  practical  humanity, 
everywhere  neutralizing  ignorance,  inertia,  and  de- 
spair. An  ample  collection  of  testimonies  to  this 
effect  may  be  read  in  Koeppen's  masterly  work,  from 
which  I  select  a  few  examples.  Such  are  the  reports 
given  by  Symes  and  others,  of  the  manners  of  the 
Burmese,  as  in  some  respects  wild  and  barbarous,  but 
in  others  exhibiting  the  delicate  sensibilities  of  a  culti- 
vated people,2 — thoughtful  for  the  sick,  the  weak,  and 
the  old,  placable  towards  enemies  and  hospitable  to 

1  Lassen,  IV.  725;  Koeppen,  II.  70,  112. 

2  Malcom  {Travels  in  Burmah)  says:  "During  my  whole  residence  in  this  country,  I 
never  saw  an  immodest  act  or  gesture  in  man  or  woman." 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  747 

strangers ;  —  by  Crawford,  of  the  kindness  of  the 
Siamese  and  Burmese  to  the  shipwrecked,  now  re- 
garded as  a  religious  duty  towards  those  whom  they 
were  used  to  despoil;  —  by  Pallegoix,  of  the  custom 
with  private  persons  in  Siam  of  placing  hospitals  and 
night-lodgings  along  the  roadsides  and  rivers,  for  the 
use  of  wayfarers,  while  large  vessels  are  daily  filled 
with  water,  by  the  peasant  women,  for  their  refresh- 
ment ;  —  and  by  travellers  generally,  of  the  condem- 
nation of  crimes  like  theft  and  murder,  by  the  Siamese 
as  a  people,  notwithstanding  the  great  number  of 
rogues  and  vagabonds  that  infest  the  country.1  "Vast 
numbers  of  the  poor  in  Christian  countries,"  says  a 
competent  witness,2  "  may  well  envy  the  correspond- 
ing class  in  Siam." 

Wherever  Buddhism  has  extended,  even  where  it 
has  fallen  from   the  simplicity  of  its  earliest 

L  J  Its  vestiges. 

inspirations  into  manifold  mummeries  and 
fanaticisms,  there  still  remains  this  redeeming  pres- 
ence of  the  spirit  of  brotherhood.  "Popular  educa- 
tion has  reached  a  considerable  degree  of  advancement 
in  all  Buddhist  countries.  Every  town,  almost  every 
secluded  village,  has  its  monastery  occupied  by  monks, 
who,  either  with  or  without  pay,  give  instruction  to 
children,  affording  to  all  the  means  of  acquiring  ele- 
mentary knowledge ;  so  that  it  is  really  rare  to  find 
persons  who  can  neither  read  nor  write."3  There  are 
institutions  everywhere  for  the  sick,  orphaned,  and 
poor ;  wells  in  every  desert ;  shady  groves  along  every 
dusty  road  ;  everywhere  missionaries  of  comfort  and 
relief;  everywhere  tender  mercies  towards  the  lower 


1  Koeppen,  I.  455-486.     See  also  Nevins's  China,  pp.  214-228. 

2  Alabaster,  Wheel  of  the  Law,  p.  lvi. 

8  Bastian,  Weltauff.  d.  Buddh.  (Berlin,  1S70),  p.  37      St.  Hilaire,  p.  400. 


yzj.8  BUDDHISM. 

creatures ;  and  this  not  confined  to  regulations  in  re- 
straint of  their  wanton  abuse  and  destruction,  but  car- 
ried even  to  that  extravagance  of  care  and  protection 
which  naturally  belongs  to  an  idealism  without  sense 
of  practical  limits.  Buddhism  has  everywhere  sought 
to  abolish  bloody  sacrifices,  and  in  most  Asiatic  coun- 
tries with  success ;  bringing,  in  place  of  these  barbar- 
ities of  religious  service,  mystical  and  fragrant  incense, 
and  the  tender  beauty  of  flowers.  And  with  the  same 
endeavor  to  refer  sacrifice  to  its  true  conception,  as  a 
consecration  by  love,  the  believers,  from  the  first,  con- 
tributed alms  to  the  priests  ;  gifts  for  the  support  of  the 
temples ;  milk,  butter,  cheese,  and  various  kinds  of 
drink,  according  to  their  occupations  and  means.  But 
these  gifts  were  never  to  be  burned,  nor  poured  out  as 
libations,  nor  given  with  any  idolatrous  notion  that  they 
were  eaten  or  drunk  by  the  Buddhas,  as  the  older  Sem- 
ites believed  their  blood  offerings  were  by  Baal  and 
Jehovah.  If  animals  are  sometimes  offered  in  Budd- 
hist countries,  it  is  never  to  the  Buddha.1  Deity  in- 
deed, to  accord  with  the  conception  of  nirvana,  must 
be  as  profoundly  independent  of  outward  tributes  as, 
for  the  Semitic  idea,  it  is  dependent  on  them ;  and,  if 
allowing  slighter  hold  than  this  idea  for  personal  rela- 
tions with  the  worshipper,  it  at  least  did  not  force  the 
imagination  to  divine  the  unknown  and  indefinite  de- 
mands  of  a  jealous  master ;  a  demoralization  by  fear 
in  which  the  most  degrading  forms  of  sacrifice  have 
originated.  The  instincts  of  love  and  devotion  were 
left  to  find  their  own   spontaneous  expression. 

"The  worship  of  the  Hindu  deities  in  Ceylon,"  says 
Tennent,  "  is  devoid  of  the  obscenities  and  cruelty  by 
which  it  is  characterized  on  the  continent  of  India ; 

1  Koeppen,  I.  561. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  749 

and  it  would  almost  appear  as  if  these  had  been 
discontinued  by  the  Brahmans  in  compliment  to  the 
superior  purity  of  the  worship  with  which  their  own 
had  been  fortuitously  connected."1  Slaves  have  been 
received  even  by  Buddhist  monasteries  in  this  island, 
where  caste  has  not  wholly  yielded  to  the  civilizing 
influences  of  that  humane  faith  ;  but  Singhalese  slav- 
ery, according  to  the  same  observer,  "is  domestic, 
not  predial.  It  was  so  mild  that,  when,  in  1845,  Lord 
Stanley  abolished  it,  no  claim  was  made  by  masters 
for  compensation."2 

Wherever  Buddhism  has  penetrated,  it  has  abolished 
human  sacrifice,  which  still  prevails  in  portions  of 
India  never  yet  subjected  to  its  influence.  It  has  con- 
stantly discouraged  capital  punishment ;  and  in  many 
parts  of  Asia  it  has  succeeded,  at  various  times  and 
for  longer  or  shorter  periods,  in  setting  the  death 
penalty  aside. 

"  Buddhism  has  been  violently  persecuted  at  various 
times    and  in  various   countries.     It    appears 

1  L  Peaceful 

never  to  have  dreamed  of  revenge."  3  It  has  and  tolerant 
been  faithful  to  its  principle  that  truth  is  not  to  spm1 
be  imposed  by  violence  ;  that  opinion  must  be  free.  Its 
rejection  of  bloodshed  has  been  absolute.  Beside  the 
history  of  its  peaceful  progress,  the  records  of  Islam 
and  Christianity  are  black  with  tyranny  and  hate.  If 
it  has  not  prevented  civil  wars  in  a  colossal  empire  like 
China,  we  must  remember  that  its  essential  ideas  have 
been  a  constant  restraint  on  them,  and  probably  con- 
tributed, as  much  as  any  thing,  to  that  social  order  and 
national  unity  through  nearly  four  thousand  years, 
which  has  been  in  many  respects  the  most  marvellous 
fact  in  the  political  history  of  mankind. 

1  Tennent's  Ceylon^  I.  536.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  i.  3  St.  Hilaire,  p.  400. 


750  BUDDHISM. 

Buddhism  reached  the  conception  that  all  religions 
have  been  apprehensions,  with  greater  or  less 

Recognition  r  r  ° 

of  universal  distinctness,  of  one  eternal  faith  ;  so  that  it  has 
rehgion.  £e|t  &  ]^\n^\y  yearning  towards  all  of  them, 
sought  to  find  their  common  good  elements,  and 
to  give  each  a  place  in  the  theory  of  its  dharma  or 
Law.  It  assigns  one  of  its  highest  heavens  to  the 
virtuous  of  other  religions.  It  knows  no  heathen 
hated  of  God,  only  a  common  humanity  seeking  for 
eternal  life.  "When  Sakyamuni  came  to  earth," 
say  the  Lamaists,  "  he  found  that  all  peoples  were  not 
equally  capable  of  receiving  his  whole  law.  He 
therefore  gave  to  each  what  truths  it  was  able  to 
apprehend,  and  so  spread  his  blessing  over  all.  And 
of  all  these,  not  one  that  follows  its  own  light,  shall 
be  lost."1  The  Mahavansa  relates  of  Dushtagamini, 
that,  among  the  images  of  deities  in  act  of  homage  to 
Buddha,  which  he  made  to  adorn  his  great  dagop, 
was  that  of  the  Buddhist  Satan,  ascending  humbly, 
with  his  host  of  followers,  to  praise  with  the  rest  the 
power  of  goodness  he  had  vainly  striven  to  overturn.2 
The  legend  of  the  conversion  of  Kashmir  makes  the 
Nagas  (water  serpents)  oppose  the  civilizing  gospel 
and  attempt  to  destroy  its  apostles.  Not  only  are 
their  stones  and  arrows  turned  to  flowers  as  they  fall, 
but  their  chiefs,  instead  of  being  annihilated,  are  con- 
verted, to  rejoice  in  a  land  which  from  a  desert  has 
been  transformed  into  a  garden.3 

Towards  Christians   Buddhism  has   always  shown 

1  Bergmann,  in  Koeppen,  I.  462;  Bastian,  ut  supra,  p.  26. 

2  Mahavansa,  ch.  xxx.  The  reply  of  the  priests  to  the  scruples  of  this  king  at  having 
destroyed  thousands  of  lives  in  war,  that  "heretics"  were  "no  better  than  wild  beasts" 
{Mqhav.  ch.  xxv.),  is  at  once  condemned  by  the  chronicler:  a  fact  not  mentioned  by 
Hardy,  who  quotes  the  saying  to  discredit  Buddhism.     {Eastern    Monachism,  p.  415.) 

s  Joum.  Asiatiqiie,  for  1S65,  pp.  490,  505.  In  Indian  mythology,  serpents  stand  for 
rude  primitive  powers,  whether  of  man  or  nature  ;  while  the  eagle,  garuda,  represents  the 
divine  forces  that  subdue  them. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  75 1 

this  broad  hospitality.  It  was  among  the  Mongolian 
tribes  of  Central  Asia  that  they  found  readiest  access ; 
with  Tschingis-Khan  and  his  successors,  who  gloried 
in  acknowledging  one  God,  and  the  many  ways  in 
which  men  might  serve  Him.  Marco  Polo  records 
the  declaration  of  Kublai-Khan,  that  he  "  reverenced 
the  four  great  Prophets,  — Jesus,  Mahomet,  Moses, 
and  Buddha." 

Ruysbrock  relates  that  Kublai-Khan,  after  witness- 
ing a  long  discussion  between  disciples  of  different 
faiths,  said  to  a  Franciscan,  holding  up  his  hand : 
"  How  many  fingers  here  ?  "  Answer:  "Five."  "Yet 
'tis  the  same  hand,  for  all.  So  with  your  religions." 
A  Buddhist  priest  in  Ceylon,  we  are  told  by  Tennent,1 
not  long  since  wrote  a  book  about  Jesus,  in  which  he 
expressed  the  belief  that  he  had  pre-existed,  after  the 
Buddhist  way,  as  a  God,  and  had  dwelt  in  six  heavens  ; 
then  taken  flesh,  through  his  good-will  to  man,  and 
taught  the  truth,  as  far  as  it  was  given  him ;  in  short,. 
that  he  was,  in  some  sense,  a  Buddha.  The  same 
writer  records  the  remark  of  a  Ceylonese  chief  to  a 
missionary,  upon  entering  his  son  at  the  mission- 
school  :  "  I  would  add  your  religion  to  steady  my 
own,  holding  Christianity  to  be  a  very  safe  outrigger 
to  Buddhism."  The  edict  of  Asoka,  proclaiming 
universal  toleration  and  affirming  his  preference  of 
conduct  that  should  bring  any  religion  into  good 
repute,  to  all  alms-giving  and  all  personal  homage, 
has  its  modern  counterpart  in  the  entire  religious 
freedom  established  by  the  late  King  of  Siam  in  all 
his  dominions ;  in  his  special  regulations  to  secure 
Christian  churches  from  interference,  and  his  en- 
deavors to  acquaint  himself  with  the  languages  and 

1  Ceylon,  I.  530. 


752  BUDDHISM. 

science  of  the  West,  in  furtherance  of  plans  for  puri- 
fying Buddhism  from  superstitions,  and  placing  it 
on  a  basis  of  pure  natural  religion.1  Sir  John  Bow- 
ring  quotes  a  letter  from  this  liberal  prince,  in  which 
he  says  :  "  In  inquiries  into  the  nature  of  God,  we 
cannot  tell  who  is  right  and  who  is  wrong ;  but  I  will 
pray  my  God  to  give  you  his  blessing,  and  you  must 
pray  yours  to  bless  me  :  thus  blessings  may  fall  on 
both  of  us."2  But  he  told  the  missionaries  plainly: 
"  You  must  not  expect  any  of  us  to  become  Christians. 
We  shall  not  embrace  what  we  think  a  foolish  re- 
ligion."3 Becoming  acquainted  with  European  navi- 
gation, he  at  once  decreed  that  the  holy  Mount  Meru, 
with  all  its  heavens  and  hells,  must  be  given  up, 
voyages  round  the  world  having  disproved  its  exist- 
ence.4 So  thoroughly  is  the  Buddhist  transmigration- 
system  identified  with  this  old  religious  geography, 
that  this  summary  dealing  with  the  one  must,  it  would 
seem,  be  the  death-knell  of  the  other.  The  courage- 
ous honesty  of  the  King  of  Siam  is  but  a  natural  result 
of  Buddhist  faith  in  reason  and  in  man. 

The  Siamese  believe  that  the  different  confessions 
are  but  diverse  forms  of  one  true  faith  ;  and  the 
practical  consequence  is  the  growth  of  the  Free  Budd- 
hist churches,  now  for  many  years  existing  in  Siam, 
which  reject  the  miraculous  in  their  ancestral  religion, 
and  adhere  to  its  moral  teachings  only.5  In  China 
sayings  like  these  are  common  proverbs :  "  Religions 
are  many,  reason  is  one  :  we  are  all  brothers.  The 
three  religions  have  a  common  standpoint :  they  insist 

1  Pallegoix  and  Bowring.     See  Koeppen,  I.  467. 

2  Bowring's  Narrative  of  the  Mission  to  Siam,  I.  349.  His  very  intelligent  cor- 
respondence with  Bowring  (in  English)  is  printed  in  the  appendix  to  the  same  work. 

3  The  Modern  Buddhist  (Alabaster),  p.  73.  *  Bastian,  XVelta7iff.,  &c,  p.  34- 
5  Koeppen,  I.  46S. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  753 

on  the  banishment  of  wrong  desires."  And  this  is  not 
merely  the  commonplace  of  a  formalism  which  M. 
Hue  rather  contemptuously  calls  "  Chinese  politeness  " 
in  religion,  but  the  practical  principle  and  policy  of 
the  empire ;  made,  so  far  as  foreign  interference  will 
permit,  the  basis  of  the  relation  between  Church  and 
State.  The  frank  liberality  of  the  regent  of  Thibet 
to  the  Catholic  missionaries,  and  his  readiness  to  dis- 
cover that,  on  the  whole,  there  was  no  serious  differ- 
ence of  faith  between  him  and  them,  is  of  the  same 
quality,  and  truly  Buddhist.  Spence  Hardy  speaks  of 
Brahmanical  ceremonies  as  side  by  side  with  Buddhist 
in  Ceylon,  and  of  the  ease  with  which  native  temples 
can  be  obtained,  if  desired,  for  Christian  worship. 

Persecution,  in  Buddhist  countries,  has  in  fact  al- 
ways been  the  result  of  wrongful  interference  from  with- 
out. The  Chinese  have  expelled  European  mission- 
aries only  when  they  began  to  plot  for  overthrowing 
the  government.  It  was  the  piracy  of  the  Portuguese 
that  caused  their  expulsion  from  Japan,  not  their  re- 
ligious belief.  Recent  attempts  of  Catholic  priests  in 
Siam  to  destroy  the  native  temples  have  been  met  by 
a  forbearance  unknown  in  the  Christian  world.  The 
large-hearted  king  actually  counselled  his  people  to 
ignore  the  injuries  done  them  by  Christians  who  were 
the  pensioners  of  his  bounty.1 

This  spirit  is  no  less  apparent  in  the  sectarian  dis- 
cussions, which  have  abounded  at  every  period  Thecomro 
of  Buddhist  history.  They  exhausted  every  ^ ele" 
form  of  Oriental  metaphysics,  every  question  of  eccle- 
siastical discipline  and  practical  duty.  Yet  they  were 
conducted  with  a  mutual  toleration  that  has  probably 

1  Bastian,  ut  supra,  p.  26.  The  virtues  and  failings  of  this  king  are  described  in  Mrs- 
Leonowens's  work,  The  English  Governess  at  the  Siamese  Court  (1870). 

43 


754  BUDDHISM. 

never  been  equalled  in  the  history  of  religious  contro- 
versy. "Though  the  vessels  differ,  the  water  is  the 
same,"  say  the  Chinese  sutras.  "Though  the  flame 
be  of  various  lamps,  the  illumination  is  one  :  so  with 
the  difference  of  the  two  Vehicles.''''  Tennent  says  of 
Singhalese  Buddhism,  that  "  its  toleration  of  heresy  is 
intolerance  of  schism."  But  he  admits  that  the  quar- 
rels of  Christian  sects  have  repelled  the  Singhalese 
from  their  teachings.1  Hiouen  Thsang  found  all  the 
kingdoms  of  India  agitated  by  the  strife  between  the 
schools  of  the  Great  and  Little  Vehicles,  the  former 
advancing  to  the  metaphysical  basis  of  Buddhism,  the 
latter  confined  to  its  moral,  ecclesiastical,  and  mythic 
elements.  Notwithstanding  the  extent  of  the  differ- 
ence, and  the  spread  of  this  schism  through  the  whole 
Buddhist  church,  these  contending  sects  were  living, 
upon  the  whole,  at  peace,  without  attempting  to  oppress 
or  exclude  each  other ;  .and  Hiouen  Thsang  hardly 
mentions  a  single  act  of  fanatical  violence.  On  his 
return  to  China,  though  a  devoted  follower  of  the 
Great  Vehicle,  he  translated  the  books  of  his  oppo- 
nents with  entire  impartiality.2  Throughout  the  his- 
tory of  this  Church  of  Humanity,  a  commandment 
which  has  been  the  prolific  seed  of  Catholic  and 
Protestant  intolerance,  the  " comfelle  intrare"  is 
wholly  unknown. 

In  all  forms  of  Buddhism,  rationalistic,  ethical,  phil- 
Buddhist  osophical,  the  principle  of  religious  freedom 
toleration     stancis    a  constant  factor.     It  belongs  to  the 

not  indiffer-  7  ° 

ence.  essence  of  the  faith. 

According  to  most  Christian  writers,  this  is  be- 
cause the  essence  of  Buddhism  is  "indifference  in 
religion."     The  injustice  of  such  a  charge  against  the 

"  Tennent's  Ceylon,  II.  545-  *  St.  Hilaire,  p.  301-306. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  755 

most  ardent  missionaries  in  the  ancient  world  is  too 
evident  to  be  discussed.  Others  find  the  explanation 
in  the  "  negative  "  spirit  of  this  religion.  "  How  should 
they  who  believe  the  highest  truth  is  in  knowing  noth- 
ing, persecute  others  for  knowing  less  than  them- 
selves? Intolerance  grows  out  of  the  necessities  of 
an  actual  Church  and  an  actual  State.  How  should 
they  persecute,  to  whom  both  Church  and  State  are 
unreal  ?  "  1  But  the  supposed  "  nihilism  "  of  the  Budd- 
hists has  already  received  our  attention.  Even  were 
there  more  justice  in  the  imputation  than  there  is,  the 
fact  remains  to  be  explained  that  they  who  are  so  in- 
tensely devoted  to  the  propagation  of  nihilism  should 
exhibit  such  liberality  towards  the  intensest  opponents 
thereof.  If  knowing  nothing  is  the  highest  good,  then 
the  pretence  of  knowing  any  thing  is  the  utmost  mis- 
chief; and  it  is  hard  to  say  why  he  who  finds  motive 
for  zeal  in  love  of  the  one  should  not  find  motive  for 
severity  in  hatred  of  the  other.  However  unreal  in 
essence  Church  and  State  may  be  for  the  Buddhist 
mind,  it  is  to  the  extension  of  the  Church  and  the 
conversion  of  the  State  that  it  has  been  devoted  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  and  there  must  be  some- 
thing more  positive  and  potent  than  mere  insensibility 
to  the  worth  of  right  knowledge,  which  has  kept  it 
broad  and  sweet,  hospitable  and  tolerant  to  all  oppos- 
ing creeds.  An  attitude  of  negation  is  essentially  an 
attitude  of  opposition ;  and  the  path  of  opposition  is 
the  path  to  enmity  just  in  proportion  to  the  degree  in 
which  the  affirmative  and  receptive  spirit  is  excluded 
from  it.  How,  then,  is  the  tolerance  of  Buddhism  to 
be  explained  as  a  fruit  of  its  negative  qualities?  How 
is  it  we  have  not  here  a  set  of  morose  and  bitter  misan- 
thropes, skeptical   of   all   good   in  their  fellow-men? 

1  See  Wuttke,  II.  586. 


756  BUDDHISM. 

St.  Hilaire,  who  believes  these  millions  to  be  pure 
nihilists,  utterly  "without  one  trace  of  the  idea  of  a 
God,"  is  very  naturally  unable  to  explain  the  fact  that 
"  so  much  ignorance  should  be  accompanied  by  a  vir- 
tue that  seems  to  demand  so  much  light  and  so  rare 
a  sense  of  justice."  And  he  contents  himself  with 
recognizing  the  fact  without  attempting  to  solve  it, 
except  by  stating  it  to  have  been  in  part  "  an  imitation 
of  the  tolerant  spirit  of  Brahmanism."1 

Some,  again,  have  ascribed  this  liberal  tone  of 
0ther  Buddhism  to  an  inability  to  appreciate  the 
theories.  « sinfulness  of  sin;"  which  might  indeed  be  a 
sufficient  reason  for  expecting  men  to  manifest  such 
easily  besetting  sins  as  uncharitableness,  but  hardly 
explains  the  victory  over  it,  especially  when,  as  here, 
this  result  is  attended  by  a  painful  perception  of  moral 
penalties  and  a  rigid  moral  discipline. 

Others,  more  rationally,  refer  us  to  the  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances under  which  Buddhism  was  compelled  to 
struggle  into  life ;  to  a  resistance  in  ancestral  institu- 
tions which  it  could  not  hope  to  overcome  by  any  out- 
ward force  at  its  command. 

More  significant,  however,  is  the  truth  that  is  now 
Freedom  beginning  to  be  recognized  by  students  of 
fromrshg-    comparative  Religion,  that  intolerance  is  an 

ious  mon-  r  o  ' 

archism.  incident  of  distinctive  monotheism  or  monarch- 
ism.  The  belief  that  the  law  of  duty  is  the  imposed 
will  of  a  Being  external  to  man  and  the  world,  having 
its  authority  in  his  right  and  power  to  send  down  his 
special  edicts  to  a  separate  and  subject  race,  and  to 
secure  recognition  and  obedience  to  his  exclusive 
messengers,  —  this  belief,  standing  as  the  substance 
of  religious  obligation,  is  the  inevitable  parent  of  per- 

1  Le  Bouddha,  p.  286. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  757 

secution.  With  whatever  good  elements  it  may  be 
combined,  the  right  of  an  imposed,  external  divine  Will 
issues  in  human  Inquisitions,  and  the  compelle  intra  re 
of  the  Church.  It  is  the  energetic  infusion  of  this 
monarchism  in  Judaism  and  Christianity,  which  has 
made  intolerance  their  perpetual  vice  or  their  subtle 
tendency.  On  the  other  hand,  and  -by  reason  of  the 
total  absence  of  this  monarchical  interest,  whatever 
the  perils  that  attend  pantheism,  or  any  other  form  of 
belief  which  tends  to  identify  the  substance  of  the 
human  and  the  divine,  this  of  attempting  forcible 
entrance  on  the  domain  of  reason  and  conscience,  in 
the  name  of  sovereign  will,  is  not  one  of  them.  Now 
if  Buddhism  is  not  strictly  pantheistic,  if  it  does  not  in 
terms  identify  the  substance  of  the  human  with  the 
divine,  it  in  fact  assumes  their  unity  to  be  essential, 
and  not  arbitrary  nor  imposed.  It  seeks  the  divine 
through  the  human,  and  makes  the  self-abnegation 
through  which  it  is  attained  a  strictly  human  volition. 
Nirvana,  whatever  be  its  peculiar  meaning,  certainly 
expresses  the  free  choice  and  fulfilled  capacity  of  the 
Buddha.  In  other  words,,  it  is  Man  "  awakened"  to 
his  real  being.  Buddhism,  therefore,  appeals  to  no 
monarchical  will  absolutely  external  to  human  nature. 
And,  when  it  denies  validity  to  every  definite  form  of 
human  thought  and  being,  this  is  not  that  it  may 
affirm  the  infinite  to  be  altogether  apart  from  man ; 
but  that  it  may  find  the  infinite,  somehow,  involved  in 
his  process  of  emancipation  from  all  dreams  and  illu- 
sions into  the  reality  of  his  essential  Buddhahood. 
And  no  exclusive  messenger  to  human  nature  is  here 
possible,  since  humanity  is  itself  defined  as  having  no 
real  being  apart  from  this  process  and  result.  For 
these  reasons,  if  for  no  other,  Buddhism  can  assert  no 


758  BUDDHISM. 

authority  but  such  as  is  awarded  it  by  the  free  con- 
sciousness of  man  :  its  doctrines  must  rest  on  their 
own  intrinsic  merits,  and  their  appeal  must  be  to 
reason,  not  to  force.  Its  starting  point  is  not  in  an 
external  command,  but  in  an  inward  free  aspiration. 

And  this  was  indeed  historically  its  origin.  It  was 
origin  in  a  spontaneous  protest,  metaphysical  and  practi- 
free  protest       ,    against  the  twofold  tyranny  of  transmigra- 

and  aspira-  1      o  j  j  <-? 

tion.  tion  and  caste.  It  was  the  reaction  of  the  human 

against  an  idea  of  deity  crystallized  in  texts,  in  institu- 
tions, in  endless  minute  legislation  for  thought  and  life. 
It  was  an  appeal  from  authority  claiming  to  descend 
upon  man  to  the  force  of  aspiration  in  man. 

But  it  was  not  merely  the   assertion   of  a  human 
right.     It  was  the  cry  of  human  sympathy ; 

And  in  °  .  ,  r 

brotherly  the  summons  of  compassion  to  the  rescue  of 
mankind  from  pain  that  seemed  as  wide  and 
deep  as  life  itself.  Surely  intolerance  would  be  a 
strange  fruit  to  come  from  such  seed.  Surely  it  would 
be  unaccountable  if  they,  who  go  out  solely  to  heal 
suffering  and  to  break  bonds,  should  take  with  them 
the  crudest  scourge  of  body  and  mind.  We  may 
easily  believe  that  such  instincts  of  brotherhood  as  im- 
pelled the  Buddhist, — being  wholly  free  from  that 
sense  of  a  commission  to  maintain  the  exclusive  claims 
of  a  mediator  and  a  monarchical  dogma,  which  has  so 
often  darkened  Christianity  and  Islam  with  its  per- 
secuting' spirit  —  could  not  fail,  however  otherwise 
enfeebled,  to  reap  the  benefit  of  this  indemnity  in  a 
broader  and  sweeter  flow. 

The  tolerant  attitude  of  Buddhism  requires  no  other 
explanation,  apart  from  the  natural  tendency  of 

Result.  r  r  ,  .        t.      1 

the  Hindu  mind  as  shown  also  in  Brahman- 
ism,  than  the  essential  quality  and  aim  of  the  Budd- 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  759 

hist  movement  itself.  It  is  but  a  part  of  that  humane 
impulse,  which  must  be  fully  recognized  as  substan- 
tially its  motive  power,  before  either  its  metaphysical 
negations  or  its  positive  moral  ardor  can  be  fairly 
understood. 

As  inclusive  of  all  other  practical  benefits  from  the 
propagation  of  Buddhism,  we  must  add  the  unifying 
fact,  that  it  has  been  a  vast  force  of  associa-  force- 
tion ;  an  ideal  centre  of  unity  among  the  rude  and 
isolated  races  of  Asia.  With  all  its  pliancy  to  local 
peculiarities,  and  through  all  diversities  of  phase,  it 
has  given  them  a  common  starting-point  of  religious 
interest,  in  place,  in  time,  and  in  personal  homage ; 
and,  to  no  slight  extent,  a  common  dogma,  a  common 
tradition,  and  a  common  literature.  It  has  thus  done 
much  in  accomplishing  that  preliminary  stage  in  re- 
ligious growth  for  the  Eastern  world  which  Christianity 
has  so  well  effected  for  the  West.  It  has  brought 
the  tribes  together  by  missions,  explorations,  and  pil- 
grimages to  distant  and  widely  separated  shrines.  It 
has  taught  them"  orderly  routines,  patient  disciplines, 
permanent  friendly  relations  between  classes,  and, 
in  such  defective  ways  indeed  as  Oriental  genius 
conditioned  and  an  undeveloped  perception  of  nat- 
ural laws  required,  aided  them  to  distinct  social  and 
political  aims.1  It  is  not  true  that  its  call  to  forsake 
the  world  as  vanity,  and  to  immure  life  in  the  con- 
vent or  the  cell,  has  made  it  a  mere  force  of  social 
disintegration.  The  conventual  life  was  a  step  to- 
wards definite  and  constructive  communion.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  Buddhist  priests  lived  in  the  towns 


1  The  crude  and  coarse  material,  which  was  to  be  leavened,  explains  that  strange  mixt- 
ure of  moral  elevation  with  trivial  and  even  repulsive  details  of  special  prescription,  which 
characterizes  such  Buddhist  works  as  the  Catechism  of  the  Chinese  Sltaniaw- 


j6o  BUDDHISM. 

and  cities,  were  not  eremites  but  cenobites,  avoiding 
the  old  isolation  of  the  Brahmanical  ascetics ; l  and 
whether  as  mendicants,  or  as  private  teachers,  or  as 
employed  in  other  professional  services,  everywhere 
formed  a  real  centre  for  the  interests  of  the  people. 
They  are  to  this  day  the  instructors  of  the  children 
of  the  poor  in  all  towns  and  villages  in  Buddhist 
countries.2  Their  preaching  of  the  vanity  of  life  was 
at  least  preaching,  and  gathered  the  multitudes  as  they 
had  never  been  gathered  before,  to  breathe  the  mag- 
netic atmosphere  of  a  common  purpose,  and  feel  the 
thrill  of  democratic  appeal.  The  degree  to  which 
this  sense  of  social  equality,  this  democratic  element, 
exists  in  China,  in  India,  and  even  in  Central  Asia,  is 
yet  to  be  appreciated  by  the  Western  nations ;  and 
Buddhism  has  been,  to  an  extent  which  is  equally  un- 
recognized, at  once  its  expression  and  its  education. 

"  Nipal  is  covered  with  vthdras  (monasteries) ;  but  these  ample 
abodes  have  long  resounded  with  the  hum  of  industry  and  the 
pleasant  voices  of  women  and  children.  The  convents  are  always 
open  to  new-comers,  and  for  the  departure  of  those  who  are  tired 
of  their  vows.  Women  are  regarded  as  equally  worthy  of  admis: 
sion  with  men."3 

The  Nepalese  priests  have  abandoned  ascetic  prac- 
tices, and  have  exclusive  inheritance  of  the  pro- 
fessions and  trades.  The  chief  maintenance  of  the 
lamas  of  Thibet  is  their  own  industry.  They  are 
artists,  schoolmasters,  artisans,  and  laborers  in  every 
kind.4  The  dependent  condition  involved  in  the  men- 
dicancy of  the  Buddhist  priesthood  exposes  this  class 
to  popular  contempt,  which  is  to  a  great  degree  offset 

1  Koeppen,  II.  262. 

2  Bastian,  Welta-uff.  d-  Buddh.,  p.  37;  St.  Hilaire,  p.  401. 

3  Hodgson,  Transact,  of  Royal  As-  Soc,  II.  256. 

*  Wilson,  Essays,  II.  374;  Koeppen,  II.  275  ;  Hue,  II.  90. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  761 

by  the  many  ways  in  which  they  make  themselves 
of  general  service.  In  most  Buddhist  countries,  the 
Festival  of  the  Plough  is  held  annually  with  great 
honor,  all  classes,  from  the  monarch  down,  paying  rev- 
erence to  this  symbol  of  the  dignity  of  labor.  In 
Siam,  on  these  occasions,  a  "king  of  the  husband- 
men" is  chosen,  who  represents  the  highest  authority, 
and  is  made  the  centre  of  various  singular  rites. 
During  his  brief  sovereignty,  he  receives  as  his  per- 
quisite all  fines  paid  for  violating  the  law  against 
doing  work  on  this  festal  day.1 

These  bold  pioneers,  these  active  colonizers,  these 
sturdy  democrats,  making  the  far  expanses  of  _.    ., 

J  or  Significance 

a  continent  vocal  even  with  their  tidings  of  a  of  Buddhist 
silent  world,  and  alive  and  prolific  by  a  gospel  preac  mg 
which  actually  proclaimed  them  empty  and  dead,  — 
what  a  rebuke  they  are  to  all  narrow,  negative  form- 
ulas for  interpreting  the  facts  of  religious  history ! 
That  they  preached  absolute  renunciation  of  life,  en- 
forced thereto  by  the  absence  of  science  and  practical 
freedom,  was  really  the  sign  that  these  two  elements 
were  indispensable  to  the  dignity  and  desirability  of 
life,  and  that  man's  ideal  nature  refused  to  honor  even 
existence  itself  on  the  conditions  it  then  and  there 
presented.  And  was  the  instinctive  protest  wholly 
blind  to  this,  its  own  inner  meaning?  Mark  what 
these  idealists  did. 

They  struck  out  a  new  doctrine  and  discipline,  be- 
cause the  old  was  stiff  and  unsocial.     They    Achieve- 
proselyted  for  it  with  an  energy  never  equalled    ments- 
before  or  since,  save  by  that  of  Catholic  Rome.    They 
preached  tidings  of  salvation   to  the  low-caste    arti- 
sans and  laborers  ;  encouraged  agriculture,  and  taught 

1  Crawford's  Mission  to  Sunn. 


^62  BUDDHISM. 

writing  and  humane  manners  to  the  rude  rovers  of 
the  north.1  They  planted  peaceful  monasteries  for 
study  and  contemplation,  gathered  colossal  libraries, 
created  immense  bodies  of  literature,  in  India,  in 
Nepal,  in  Thibet,  in  Ceylon,  in  China ;  and  they  re- 
freshed with  tides  of  positive  enterprise  and  emigra- 
tion, in  the  interest  of  an  ideal  aim,  all  Eastern  Asia 
from  Korea  to  Siam.  Architecture  and  sculpture  in 
central  and  southern  Asia  are  mainly  of  their  crea- 
tion. The  indications  of  writing  in  India  commence 
with  their  revolution  in  the  interest  of  the  masses.2 
Their  recognition  of  the  value  of  letters  is  illustrated 
in  their  mythical  genesis  of  "the  sacred  syllable." 
"First  the  world  was  void.  The  first  light  was  aum; 
thence  the  alphabet,  the  seeds  of  the  universe."3 
They  may  even  be  said  to  have  created  history  in 
India  by  the  civil,  social,  and  political  agitations 
which  they  produced. 

Their  uninterrupted  chronicle  of  Ceylon,  covering 
nearly  the  whole  period  of  Buddhist  sway  in  that  island, 
with  its  valuable  chronological  data,  is,  notwithstand- 
ing its  mythical  elements,  one  of  the  most  important 
historical  documents  in  Oriental  literature.  The 
Buddhist  canon  in  China  is  seven  hundred  times  as 
large  as  the  New  Testament.  Hiouen  Thsang's  trans- 
lation of  a  single  set  of  Sutras  is  twenty-five  times  the 
amount  of  the  Christian  Bible.  The  canonical  books 
of  the  Thibetans  are  of  dimensions  beside  which  those 
of  other  races  and  religions  are  insignificant.4  They 
number  thousands  of  works,  gathered  into  hundreds 
of  volumes ;  and  the  Bible  of  the  southern  Buddhists 

1  See  St.  Hilaire,  370;  Koeppen,  I.  186,  481 ;  Wuttke,  I.  248,  II.  559- 

2  Miiller's  Sansk.  Lit.,  p.  519.  3  Hodgson,  Trans.  R.  A.  S.,  II.  232. 

4  A  summary  of  the  hundred  volumes  of  the  Kah-gyur  is  given  by  Csoma  Korbsi,  in 
Asiat-  Kesearc/ies,  vol.  xx. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  763 

is  equally  enormous.1  Both  treat  of  all  forms  of 
Oriental  speculation,  science,  and  art.2  In  the  sixth 
century  two  thousand  Buddhist  works  had  been  trans- 
lated into  Chinese.3  The  literary  industry  of  these 
(theoretic)  unbelievers  in  work  was  immeasurable. 

It  was  the  necessity  of  agricultural  development,  to 
meet  the  practical  requirements  of  a  religion  which 
prohibited  the  taking  of  life,  that  stimulated  manual 
toil,  and  covered  Ceylon  with  reservoirs  and  conse- 
crated lakes  for  the  irrigation  of  the  country.  It  was 
this  that  measured  the  praise  of  the  Buddhist  kings 
by  the  number  of  tanks  and  canals,  sometimes  amount- 
ing to  thousands,  which  they  had  constructed  for  the 
"benefit  of  the  country,"  or  "out  of  compassion  for 
living  creatures,"  or  to  enrich  the  Church  and  main- 
tain its  priesthood.  Here  was  a  theoretic  indolence, 
that  taught  kings  to  plant  gardens  and  reclaim  lands  ; 
to  provide  by  systematic  cultivation  the  means  for 
gratuitously  supplying  food  to  travellers  in  their 
dominions ;  to  organize  the  democratic  village  com- 
munities, with  their  simple  and  regular  administration 
of  justice ;  and  even  to  labor  in  the  rice  fields  with 
their  own  hands,  "to  make  their  gifts  more  meritori- 
ous ! " 4  Here  was  a  contempt  for  nature  and  all 
fleeting  forms,  that  could  surround  cities  with  gardens, 
and  bury  lofty  temples  to  their  summits  under  votive 
heaps  of  flowers,  and  make  every  day's  especial  at- 
mosphere of  prayer  and  praise  refresh  the  worshippers 
with  a  new  and  distinct  aroma,  from  the  wealth  of 
their  floral  world  !  5     Here  was  a  metaphysical  nega- 

1  The  Singhalese  Tripitaka.  (Three  Baskets)  contains  350,000  verses.  St.  Hilaire, 
p.  380. 

2  Weber's  Vorlesiengen,  p.  194 ;  Koeppen,  II.  278-280. 
s  Beal's  Buddhist  Pilgrims,  p.  xxxiii. 

*  Mahavansa,  ch.  xxxiv.  *  Tennent. 


764  BUDDHISM. 

tion  of  all  light  and  joy,  that  could  come  out  into 
recognition  of  these  very  things  as  elements  of  relig- 
ious architecture  and  ritual,  far  transcending  that  ac- 
corded them  by  the  Christian  world ;  lifting  its  airy 
pagodas  in  the  pleasantest  sites,  enclosed  with  cheerful 
galleries  and  luxuriant  gardens  and  groves  ;  enliven- 
ing its  vihdras,  and  even  the  gloom  of  its  rock  exca- 
vations, with  endless  carving  and  painting  of  symbolic 
imagery  drawn  from  nature,  the  animal  world,  and 
the  arts  of  social  life  ;  performing  its  sacred  rites  to  the 
sound  of  inspiring  music,  and  celebrating  periodical 
feasts  of  lamps,  of  images,  of  birthdays,  and  of  the 
opening  spring ! : 

There  is  scarcely  any  movement  in  the  history  of 
Historic  religious  enterprise  that  can  be  compared  to 
parallels,  this,  except  the  labors  of  the  Benedictine 
monks,  whose  rise  made  the  sixth  century  of  the 
Christian  era  memorable,  just  as  the  first  preaching 
of  Buddhism  signalized  the  sixth  century  before  it. 
That  band  of  devoted  missionaries,  who  carried  Chris- 
tianity into  the  wilds  of  northern  Europe,  raised  wo- 
man to  equality  of  ecclesiastical  position  with  man, 
and  opened  asylums  to  outcasts  and  serfs ;  who  tran- 
scribed and  diffused  copies  of  their  own  Scriptures  with 
prodigious  industry ;  who  founded  schools  of  music, 
painting,  and  architecture ;  who  preserved  art  and 
science  through  the  mediaeval  night,  and  organized 
agriculture  on  a  gigantic  scale,  as  acceptable  service 
of  God  and  ennobling  work  of  man,  —  are  the  near- 
est western  analogue  to  these  oriental  enthusiasts ; 
and  not  without  special  resemblance  in  the  proof  they 
afford    that    man    cannot    help   relucting  with  vigor 

1  Koeppen,  I.  560-585,  II-  300;  Lassen,  II  1170.  Wilson,  Journ.  R-  A.  S.  (Bom- 
bay Branch),  vol.  iv.  On  the  growth  of  Buddhist  art  in  Orissa,  from  mere  holes  in  rocks 
to  temples  covered  with  beautiful  imagery,  see  Hunter,  vol.  i. 


BUDDHIST    CIVILIZATION.  765 

against  all  his  own  theoretic  postulates  of  the  "  vanhy 
of  life." 

We  should  mention  also  the  Moravian  brethren,  a 
more  recent  instance  of  practical  zeal  in  the  service 
of  an  ideal  that  apparently  disparaged  the  present 
world  ;  —  penetrating  the  remotest  regions  of  barbar- 
ism, and  piercing  Himalayan  solitudes,  to  surmount 
those  colossal  heights,  and  stand  side  by  side  with 
Buddhism  on  the  sacred  plateaux  of  Central  Asia. 


VII. 
ECCLESIASTICISM. 


ECCLESIASTICIS  M. 


HTHE  practical  energy  and  humanity  of  Buddhism  in 
-*-  its  early  days,  and  these  later  vestiges  of  Degeneracy. 
a  civilizing  power  which  even  its  degeneracy 
cannot  hide,  thoroughly  refute  the  charge  that  its  in- 
tellectual skepticism  was  spiritual  despair.  They  are 
the  cheering  signs  of  a  healthful  effort  of  nature  to 
counteract  the  inertia  of  the  Eastern  races ;  to  over- 
come the  physical  conditions  that  held  them  apart; 
to  compensate  for  the  absence  of  scientific  and  social 
opportunity,  and  for  the  inveteracy  of  institutions;  to 
relieve  the  monotony  of  contemplation,  endlessly  re- 
volving fixed  forms  of  thought,  and  cycles  of  destiny. 
It  was  from  these  invincible  conditions  of  race,  cli- 
mate, experience,  identified  with  life  itself,  that  men 
sought  refuge  in  negations,  whose  very^thoroughness 
was  a  path  of  emancipation,  and  led  out  into  the  gran- 
deur of  compassion,  sacrifice,  love.  Yet  without 
science,  without  friction  of  races,  without  the  stir  of 
a  more  ardent  life,  these  conditions  were  invincible. 
The  social  status  could  not  supply  material  for  forms 
of  permanent  culture  which  would  justify  life,  as  life, 
to  man's  ideal  sense.  So  this  negation  penetrated 
even  the  humane  instincts,  and  made  them  subser- 
vient to  ascetic  aims.     The  Buddhist  priesthood  be- 

49 


770  BUDDHISM. 

came,  after  an  Oriental  way,  men  of  action,  and 
constructive  forces  in  the  living  world ;  but  it  was  to 
persuade  others  to  abandon  action  and  renounce  the 
world.1  The  salvation  they  preached  was  escape  from 
life,  not  discovery  of  its  inherent  practical  values,  out- 
ward or  inward.  It  was  the  same  in  a  very  large 
degree  with  Christianity  ;  but  the  ethnic  connections 
and  opportunities  of  Christianity,  unlike  those  of  Budd- 
hism, have  been  capable  of  counteracting  the  other- 
worldliness  of  its  own  prescribed  ideal.  The  Buddhist 
priesthood,  on  the  other  hand,  are  still  children  of  the 
jungle  and  the  steppe,  of  the  brooding  Oriental  fate. 
Their  active  enterprise,  their  organized  efficiency, 
their  democratic  zeal,  trail  with  the  old  languor  of  the 
Yogi  life  in  its  endless  strain  against  an  endless  con- 
sciousness, moving  through  nature  in  a  somnambulic 
way,  like  the  anchoret  pacing  under  his  banyan 
shades.  They  fail  of  our  Western  magnetic  sense 
of  the  outward  capabilities  of  the  actual  world,  so 
needful  to  the  evolution  of  its  spiritual  uses. 

Against  these  disadvantages,  they  have  put  a  per- 
sistent adherence  to  their  traditions  of  benevolence  as 
the  purpose  of  life.  But  even  this  has  proved  but  an 
imperfect  defence  against  the  inevitable  degeneracy 
of  a  positive  religion,  in  its  passage  through  definite 
cultus  into  the  form  of  authoritative  institution ;  while 
on  the  other  hand  they  have  lacked  the  energy  in 
secular  aims  which  Western  races  have  known  how 
to  oppose  to  this  process,  and  to  make  available  for 
a  continual  reconstruction  of  the  religious  ideal.  They 
are    monks,  mendicants,  dreamers   still,  but   without 

1  "  Leaving  all  pleasures  behind,  calling  nothing  his  own,  going  from  his  home  to  a 
homeless  state,  and  no  longer  clinging  to  any  thing,  the  wise  will  set  himself  free." — 
Dhammap.,  vv.  87-89.  Yet  the  Pratimoksha  forbids  disparagement  of  life  or  commen- 
dation of  death,  however  common  suicide  may  have  been  in  later  Buddhism.  See  Heal, 
Budd-  Pilgrims,  p.  xlii. 


DEGENERACY.  77l 

the  enthusiasm  of  the  founders  of  their  faith ;  still 
apostles  of  negation,  but  not  now  in  the  old  way 
of  earnest  protest  and  quickening  demand.  Their 
metaphysics  are  not  so  much  the  keen  sense  that  per- 
ception is  of  the  unreal,  as  a  traditional  acquiescence 
in  that  conclusion  and  its  results.  For  the  swarming 
functionaries  of  a  Church  two  thousand  years  old, 
and  the  hundreds  of  millions  who  perform  its  rites, 
the  dogma  of  the  nothingness  of  things  visible,  how- 
ever conceived,  has  indeed  come  to  its  own  self-con- 
tradiction both  in  faith  and  practice ;  though  certainly 
not,  thus  far,  in  the  interest  of  their  proper  reality. 

The  world,  pronounced  a  phantom  because  it  is  so 
transient,  has  become  a  flood-tide  of  minute  Nature>s 
and  busy  ceremonial  observances ;  it  pours  irony- 
upon  these  preachers  of  the  Void  immeasurable  de- 
tails of  mythologic  and  symbolic  imagery ;  it  buries 
them  under  a  tropical  rankness  of  legend,  to  be  com- 
pared only  with  the  colossal  flora  of  the  carboniferous 
epoch  of  the  planet.  What  irony  !  A  God  in  nir- 
vana blooming  into  a  tropic  summer  of  resplendent 
fable,  flowering  inexhaustibly  in  personal  portrait- 
ure, miracle,  metamorphosis  !  The  human  body 
renounced  as  worthless,  vindicating  itself  in  a  stu- 
pendous veneration  of  statues  and  relics  !  The  long- 
ing for  absolute  rest  as  the  crown  of  virtue,  issuing  in 
unbounded  devotion  to  miraculous  energies,  supposed 
to  flow  from  saints  who  have  departed  for  such  a  rest ! 
Believers  in  the  emptiness  of  all  forms,  and  even 
actions,  driven  by  an  insatiable  passion  for  multiplying 
prayers,  to  actual  mechanical  contrivances  for  work- 
ing off  the  greatest  number  of  them  in  the  shortest 
time  by  movements  of  the  lips,  or  strings  of  beads,  or 
the  many-colored  prayer-cylinder  (kurdu)  stuffed  with 


772  BUDDHISM. 

formulas  on  paper  slips,  or  with  the  books  of  the  law, 
and  turned  by  hand  !  These  are  nature's  own  reven- 
dications,  enforcements  of  rights  suppressed  or  disal- 
lowed, in  such  ways  as  remain  possible;  proving  at 
least  that  the  balance  of  spiritual  forces  cannot  be 
destroyed.  In  the  very  extravagance  of  such  self- 
contradictions  and  perversions  there  is  a  blind  pres- 
sure of  the  instincts  towards  immeasurableness,  which 
affirms  man's  innate  relation  to  the  infinite. 

Swarms  of  images  standing  above  millions  of  pros- 
trate men,  or  heaps  of  bones,  ashes,  jewels, 
of reKcs'Ld  vases,  coins,  devoutly  laid  up  in  topes,  those 
images.       bubble-shapes  that  deny  the  validity  of  what 
they  hold,  are  but  illustrations  of  the  spectacle  that  every 
distinctive  religion  has  presented  in  degenerating  from 
its  first  inspiration.     Neither  Buddhism  nor  Catholi- 
cism, however,  must  be  supposed  to  teach  mere  idolatry 
of  dead  objects.     Pure  fetichism  belongs  only  to  the 
lowest  stages  of  the  religious  sentiment;    and  every 
historical    faith    carries    with    it   traditional   idealism 
enough  to    forbid    recurrence   to  the   mere   dread  of 
volitions  inherent  in  the  dead  wood  and  stone.     The 
worship    rendered    these    images    and    relics    looks 
through  them  to  their  consecration  by  some  superior 
presence,  some  subtle  guardianship,  some  association 
that  holds  them  to  what  was  once  a  personal  relation. 
It  differs  far  less  than  is  wont  to  be  supposed  from 
sentiments  familiar  to  all  civilized  people.     The  ex- 
treme demonstrativeness  in  these  rituals,  which  seems 
to  indicate  no  less  than  real  adoration  of  the  statues 
and  relics  themselves,  is  in  fact  habitual  to  the  Oriental 
mind,  and  does  not  by  any  means  imply  that  the  merely 
symbolic  meaning  of  the  object  is  lost  in  sheer  idolatry. 
"  The  intelligent  Burman,"  says  Malcom,  "  claims  that 


IMAGERY    AND    RELICS.  773 

he  regards  images  as  papists  do  a  crucifix :  he  places 
no  trust  in  them,  but  uses  them  to  remind  him  of  Got- 
ama,  and  in  compliance  with  his  commands."1 

Buddhism,  in  fact,  subjects  this  form  of  service  to 
special  restraints.  Its  devotion  was  centered  its  limha- 
in  love  and  gratitude  to  a  man.  Its  oldest  g^^ist 
temples  are  without  visible  objects,  even  of  an. 
this  form  of  piety.2  But  an  old  legend  describes 
the  Buddha  as  directing  his  picture,  inscribed  with 
the  precepts  of  the  law,  to  be  sent  by  one  king  to 
another,  as  the  best  of  gifts,  and  as  a  means  of, 
conversion,  causing  his  shadow  to  be  cast  on  a 
surface  for  the  purpose.3  The  earliest  images  to 
which  the  tributes  of  this  faith  in  human  forces 
were  naturally  directed  were  in  human  form :  far 
from  such  monstrous  combinations  as  Hinduism  has 
allowed  its  later  sects,  they  were  confined  to  the 
Buddha  preaching,  meditating,  resting ;  to  the  figures 
of  his  saints,  and  to  human  representations  of  his 
church  and  his  law.  The  Sutras  abound  in  praises 
of  his  personal  beauties  ;  reckoning  them  by  hundreds, 
defining  and  classifying  them  ;  covering  his  ideal  image 
with  every  conceivable  symbol  of  supernatural  strength 
and  grace  and  sweetness  ;  4  yet  a  wonderful  soberness, 
suggestive  of  heartfelt  respect  for  the  human  and  the 
real,  reigns  throughout  the  world  of  actual  Buddhist 
statuary.  The  earnestness  of  that  profound  sense  of 
the  limits  of  outward  perception  and  possession,  of  that 
call  to  an  unseen  path  of  release  and  rest,  which  gave 
meaning  to  the  teacher's  life  and  word,  would  seem  to 
have  made  these  colossal  forms,5  lifted  above  the  gath- 

1  Notes  on  tlie  Barman  Empire,  ch.  vi.        2  See  Journ.  R-  A.  S-,  vol.  viii.  p.  42. 

3  Buniouf,  p.  340-344.  *  Hardy,  Manual-,  p.  367. 

B  Great  numbers  of  these  statues,  in  a.ll  Buddhist  countries,  are  from  twenty  to  forty 
feet  high,  and  many  are  far  larger :  they  will  ordinarily  measure  irom  twelve  to  twenty. 
Koeppen,  I.  soy. 


774  BUDDHISM. 

ered  relics  of  the  mortal  part,  its  enduring  home. 
Contrast  this  absence  of  pretension  and  display,  this 
calm  reliance  on  the  bare  truth  of  inward  thought  and 
purpose,  these  quiet  gestures  of  teaching,  these  folded 
hands  of  meditation,  with  the  boundless  license  of 
symbolic  expression  in  the  popular  statues  of  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva.  The  lifted  finger  commends  to 
silence ;  the  half-closed  eyes  recall  to  self-discipline 
and  self-restraint;  the  sitting  posture,  a  restfulness  not 
of  death  nor  sleep,  but  of  life,  affirms  the  still  patience 
,of  law  that  abides  in  the  depths  of  all  existence  ;  the 
benign  aspect  pervades  them  with  human  love.1  This 
limitation  has  its  moral  value  ;  holds  religious  feeling 
and  fancy  to  a  certain  realistic  interest.  Art  in  Budd- 
hist countries,  especially  in  Japan,  shows  rare  fidelity 
to  nature,  and  surprising  sense  of  all  vital  energies ; 
and  its  tender  patience  in  elaboration  is  referable  in 
part,  one  cannot  help  thinking,  to  the  influence  of  a 
religious  sentiment  which  constantly  insists  on  cor- 
responding moral  qualities  and  disciplines.2 

Veneration  of  relics  is  here  combined,  as  in  Catholic 
Christianity,  with  prayers  for  the  dead,  inter- 

Meamng  of  J  c       J 

relic  wor-  cession  of  saints,  and  other  related  forms  of 
devotion  to  personal  ties.  It  is,  in  reality, 
to  be  explained  as  the  natural  cling  of  private  affec- 
tions, unenlightened  by  science,  to  the  senses  ;  as  their 
protest  against  being  severed  by  death  from  the  out- 
ward objects  with  which  they  have  been  associated. 
Escape  from  supernaturalism  does  not  destroy  this 
interest,  but  simply  frees  it  from  extravagance  :  it  is 
changed    from  a  superstition  to  a  sentiment,  and  its 

1  The  Buddhist  sculptor  is  required  to  give  the  Teacher  such  a  countenance  as  becomes 
the  "  Father  of  all  creatures."  Koeppen,  p.  505.  The  elaborate  symbolism  of  later  figures 
indicates  Sivaite  influences.  Schlagintweit  shows  that  the  figures  of  Buddha  and  his  saints, 
in  Thibet,  are  of  high  Aryan  type. 

2  On  the  realism  of  Japanese  art,  see  Jarves's  Art  Thoughts,  ch-  ix. 


IMAGERY    AND    RELICS.  775 

object  from  a  miracle  to  a  memento.  This  result  is 
simply  due  to  the  fact  that  science  renders  the  required 
justice  to  the  senses  from  the  side  of  reason,  releasing 
the  emotional  nature  from  that  anxious  watch  over 
their  interests  which  it  could  not  otherwise  abandon. 
I  do  not  wonder,  therefore,  at  the  dimensions  attained 
by  relic-worship,  under  the  influence  of  a  religion  like 
Buddhism,  which  theoretically  rejects  the  claims  of  the 
senses,  at  the  same  time  giving  a  prominent  place  to  the 
distinctively  human  and  personal ;  in  other  words,  to 
sensibilities  and  affections  which  inevitably  adhere  to 
these  claims.  It  is  the  struggle  of  the  sentiments 
to  hold  their  own  ;  their  cling  to  associations  threat- 
ened with  destruction  by  the  sense  of  the  transiency 
and  unreality  of  phenomena. 

I  do  not  think  we  need  carry  this  thought  so  far  as 
to  suppose  with  Burnouf,  that  the  intense  attach- 
ment of  the  Buddhists  to  the  relics  of  their  saints 
grew  out  of  the  feeling  that  these  dead  bones  were 
all  that  remained  of  the  beings  they  had  loved ;  thus 
making  it  an  argument  to  prove  that  nirvana  was  an- 
nihilation. Would  not  belief  in  such  a  nirvana  have 
abolished  interest  in  these  mere  mementos  of  decay, 
in  place  of  stimulating  it?  That,  on  the  other  hand, 
relics  were  piously  gathered  up,  to  the  last  fragment, 
and  abundantly  supplied  by  the  imagination  where 
they  were  wanting,  would  seem  to  demonstrate  that 
those  whom  they  represented  were  still  cherished  as 
individuals  whose  life  was  bound  up  with  the  hopes 
and  desires  of  their  followers.  It  would  thus  come  in 
evidence  against  Burnouf 's  theory,  rather  than  for  it. 
It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  the  relics  of  kings,  who  cer- 
tainly could  not  have  been  thought  to  have  passed  into 
nirvana,  were  honored  in  the  same  way.     The  con- 


776  BUDDHISM. 

servation  of  relics  was  not  wholly  unknown  to  Brah- 
manism ;  but  it  became  from  the  first  the  special 
characteristic  of  Buddhism,  measuring  the  intensity 
of  its  sense  of  change,  decay,  and  death,  as  a  sorrow- 
ful destiny,  to  be  in  every  way,  symbolically  and  spirit- 
ually, mastered  and  set  aside. 

So  the  dead  body  of  the  loved  Buddha,  who  had 
passed  into  nirvana,  was  idealized  beyond  measure  : 
its  extent  in  the  fears  and  hopes  of  millions  gave  enor- 
Buddhism.  mous  proportions  to  the  mythopoetic  faculty 
in  this  direction,  and  scattered  his  members,  like 
those  of  Egyptian  Osiris,  over  the  world.1  Every 
organ,  feature,  atom  of  his  body,  alive  or  dead,  is 
sacred.  He  throws  up  his  beautiful  locks  and  his 
royal  garments  into  the  air  when  abandoning  the 
world  ;  and  they  are  caught  devoutly  as  they  ascend, 
by  a  Brahma,  and  borne  away  to  a  grand  relic  shrine 
in  the  Brahma  heavens  where  all  the  angels  can  adore 
them.2  He  distributes  every  thing  he  can  detach 
from  his  person  to  his  disciples  during  his  life.  At 
his  death,  whatever  has  passed  through  the  funeral 
fires  is  divided  into  eight  portions,  to  satisfy  as  many 
contending  nations  ;  then  follow  the  miraculous  resto- 
rations and  multiplications  which  assure  his  presence 
wherever  his  name  is  praised.  His  skull  is  in  India ; 
his  shoulder-blade,  in  Ceylon ;  the  apples  of  his  eyes 
are  in  a  cloister  in  Nagara ;  his  hairs,  nails,  fingers,  in 
various  cities  of  the  East ;  his  very  shadow  is  shown 
in  several  caves  of  Western  China ;  and  his  foot-prints 
are  visited  by  crowds  of  pilgrims  on  the  highest  peaks 
of  Asia  accessible  to  devotion.  His  water-jar  is 
laid  up  to  work  miracles  at  the  Singhalese  capital ; 
his  wash-bowl,  staff,  and  mantle  are  scattered  in  mani- 

1  St.  Hilaire,  294.  2  Wheel  of  tJu  Law,  p.  103. 


IMAGERY    AND    RELICS.  777 

fold  shapes  over  vast  empires.  His  left  eye-tooth  in 
early  times  converted  an  army.  A  Brahman  king 
tried  to  destroy  it ;  burnt,  beat,  buried,  stamped  it  out 
under  the  feet  of  elephants ;  but  in  vain.  It  would 
reappear,  on  some  lotus-leaf,  no  mere  perishable  eye- 
tooth,  but  an  indestructible  element  of  the  ascended 
Buddha.  Finally,  wearied  and  overpowered,  the  im- 
perial enemy  gave  in  and  built  it  a  splendid  temple,' 
where  it  wrought  indescribable  miracles.  Bloody  wars 
were  fought  for  that  eye-tooth  of  the  Buddha.  In  the 
fifth  century,  Fahian,  the  Chinese  pilgrim,  saw  it  car- 
ried about  in  pomp ;  long  lines  of  elephants  were 
taught  to  kneel  when  it  passed  by,  and  flowers  were 
strewn  by  the  people  along  the  ways.  At  last  it  fell 
to  the  British,  who  tried  to  destroy  it,  but  failed  like 
the  rest ;  and  so  it  is  still  honored  with  magnificent 
ceremonies,  in  Mahd-Nuwara,  or  the  Great  City,  in 
Ceylon,1  where  it  was  displayed,  in  1858,  amidst  pros- 
trate crowds,  to  Burmese  priests  sent  to  compare  it 
with  a  rival  tooth  preserved  at  Ava.2 

All  this  has  its  analogies  in  Christian  history.  And 
though  a  mystery  rested  on  the  disposal  of  the  actual 
body  of  Jesus,  which  protected  it  from  this  kind  of 
mythology,  till  veneration  for  his  person  had  changed 
it,  in  popular  faith,  into  the  very  substance  of  deity, 
yet  the  worship  of  relics  has  approached  as  nearly  as 
possible  to  the  same  point,  in  the  wonder-working  of 
his  sepulchre,  his  manger,  and  his  cross  ;  even  of  his 
foot-prints  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  in  the  houses  of 
Jerusalem,  and  in  various  Catholic  Churches  of 
France.3      At  the    close    of   the    fourteenth    century, 

1  See  the  account  of  the  deposition  of  Gotama's  relics  in  the  great  dagop  of  Ruanvelli, 
by  Dushtagamini,  and  of  the  accompanying  miracles,  in  the  thirty-first  chapter  of  the 
Mahavansa- 

2  St.  Hilaire,  p.  417.  3  Maury,  Legendes  Pieuses,  p.  214. 


778 


BUDDHISM. 


the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis  presented  a  piece  of  the  head 
of  St.  Hilary  to  the  city  of  Poitiers  :  the  chin  had 
already  been  obtained.  St.  Andrew's  head  was  wor- 
shipped for  centuries  at  Patros.  "Kings  died  for  the 
purchase  of  it.  It  was  carried  in  procession  to  Rome. 
The  heads  of  Peter  and  Paul  would  have  been  borne 
forth  to  meet  it,  but  the  gold  and  iron  which  enshrined 
them  were  too  heavy.  At  the  Milvian  Bridge,  the 
Pope  made  an  eloquent  address  to  the  Head,  entreat- 
ing its  aid  in  overcoming  the  Turks.  It  was  conveyed 
in  splendor  to  St.  Peter's,  and  deposited  under  the  high 
altar."1  No  Vigilantius  has  arisen  in  the  East  to 
rebuke  the  "  rag  and  dust  worship  "  of  Buddhist  Je- 
romes ;  no  Luther  to  thunder  against  the  venders  of 
sacred  images  that  swarm  in  all  Buddhist  states.  But 
even  the  freer  and  more  practical  understanding  of 
the  European  races  did  not  save  them  from  an  almost 
Oriental  mania  for  this  kind  of  traffic  and  this  form  of 
devotion ;  and  in  the  ninth  century  the  sale  of  relics 
had  become  the  main  part  of  the  trade  of  Rome. 
It  is  probable  that  far  more  of  conscious  imposture 
has  mingled  with  these  operations  of  the  Cath- 

The  topes.  °  .  _,      ,  .,   . 

olic  Church  than  with  those  of  Buddhism  in 
the  same  direction.  It  is  a  desire  for  the  preservation, 
rather  than  for  the  sale,  of  relics,  that  has  covered 
southern  Asia  with  topes,  or  dagop?  from  Samarkand 
and  Cabul  to  the  extremities  of  China  and  further 
India.  The  oldest  topes  are  in  the  form  of  a  bubble, 
surmounted  by  an  umbrella,  symbolical  of  sovereignty. 
In  later  times  several  figures  of  the  latter  kind  were 
placed  one  above  another,  in  a  series  typical  of  the 
several  stages  of  the   religious  life,  or  of  the  triple 

1  Milman's  .£«//»  Christianity,  VIII.  221. 

2  Topes,  or  stupas  (heaps) are  tumuli:  cLxgobat  are  relic-shrines.    The  one  terra  is  Pah, 
the  other  Singhalese  ;  but  their  meaning   is  substantially  the  same. 


MYTHOLOGY.  779 

form  under  which  the  religious  ideal  was  conceived, 
as  person,  as  law,  as  church.  In  this  way  the  Chinese 
pagoda  grew  up  out  of  the  Indian  dago-p  or  stupa, 
which  contains  its  elements,  but  whose  emblematic 
bubble  is  not  adapted  to  the  realistic  taste  of  the  Chi- 
nese. Between  these  styles  is  the  pyramidal,  which 
is  less  common.  The  dagops  are  in  grottoes  or  in 
the  open  air,  near  the  vihdras,  or  places  of  assembly 
and  temporary  sojourn  ;  and  these  last  also,  although 
built  for  convenience  in  the  form  of  a  parallelogram 
or  square,  exhibit  the  bubble-shape  in  the  most  sacred 
portion,  the  apse.  Under  these  singular  monuments, 
significant  at  once  of  utter  weakness  and  sovereign 
power,  of  the  transient  and  the  eternal,  the  relics  were 
buried  in  cells,  with  the  prayer  that  they  might  remain 
for  ever  closed ;  probably  in  the  hope  that  they  might 
be  undisturbed  till  the  coming  of  the  next  Buddha, 
thousands  of  years  in  the  future.1 

The    mythology  of   Buddhism    presents   the    same 
boundless  yearning  for  the  infinite  and  eternal  „.   ., 

J  °  Significance 

amidst  the  fleeting  of  phenomenal  forms,  of  Buddhist 
Mythology  is  always  prophetic :  it  is  the mytho  ogy' 
child's  play  of  intuition  and  imagination,  and  dimly 
divines  those  essential  relations  of  man  and  nature, 
which  science  afterwards  reaches  slowly  and  presents 
clearly  in  detail ;  so  that,  as  we  look  backward,  man 
seems  to  have  been  predicting  them  all  through  the 
ages.  Even  in  this,  the  most  extravagant  imagery 
of  religious  faith  that  ever  grew,  such  instinctive  pre- 
sentiment of  the  latest  facts  and  the  broadest  laws  is 
too  plain  to  be  mistaken.  This  revel  of  the  imagina- 
tion in  pathless  and  endless  wastes  of  number  was 
astronomy   and  microscopy  in  ideal    dream.      "  The 

1  On  Buddhist  relics,  statuary,  &c,  see  Bastian's  Siam,  pp.  119-163. 


780  BUDDHISM. 

world,"  it  said,  "  rests  on  a  lotus-leaf,  which  carries 
also  innumerable  worlds  beside  it.  So  with  every 
other  leaf  of  the  flower.  Out  of  the  atmospheric  deep 
in  which  this  lotus  floats,  arise  so  many  similar  flow- 
ers, that  it  requires  unity  followed  by  four  millions  of 
ciphers  to  designate  their  number.  And  every  leaf 
of  every  one  of  these  flowers  bears  as  many  worlds  as 
the  first.  But  this  one  atmosphere  is  but  an  atom  to 
the  whole.  There  are  as  many  more  as  there  are 
flowers  in  this,  and  each  is  as  full  of  worlds."  When 
science  would  refute  the  theological  fictions  of  a  begin- 
ning of  time,  and  of  a  creation  a  few  thousand  years 
ago,  it  points  to  the  ancient  geological  layers,  count- 
ing these  backwards  till  the  definite  sense  of  num- 
bers is  lost.  The  Buddhist  imagination,. not  obliged, 
like  science,  to  fill  out  its  spaces  with  historical  facts 
and  conditions,  goes  further ;  it  strikes  away  the  no- 
tion of  a  beginning,  at  one  sweep,  and  marks  immeas- 
urableness  as  inherent  in  time  itself.  It  recalls,  as 
if  it  were  no  earlier  than  yesterday,  an  event  declared 
to  have  occurred  ten  quadrillion  times  a  hundred 
quadrillions  of  kalpas  ago,  each  kalpa  being  thirteen1 
hundred  and  forty-four  millions  of  years  !  So  of  the 
prolific  power  of  virtue  in  every  atom  of  its  own  sub- 
stance. "  Buddha  caused  a  beam  of  light  to  go  forth 
out  of  every  one  of  the  eighty  thousand  pores  of  his 
body,  and  on  the  top  of  each  beam  was  a  flower, 
in  which  sat  a  Buddha  teaching  his  disciples."  "  Four 
things  are  immeasurable :  space ;  the  number  of 
worlds  therein ;  the  number  of  sentient  creatures ; 
and  the  wisdom  of  the  Holy  One." 

The  miracles  of  Buddha  are  colossal,  penetrate  all 
its  pure  worlds,  supplant  all  physical  laws  and  pow- 
moraiity.     ers  .  yet  ^gy  never  violate  the  eternal  laws  of 


MYTHOLOGY.  78 I 

morality,  but  in  all  possible  forms  affirm  their  authority 
and  all-sufficiency.  The  freedom  which  love  and 
wisdom  claim  in  the  universe,  their  power  to  make  the 
little  great,  the  distant  near,  the  atom  reveal  infinity, 
shines  through  all  this  delirium  of  fable ;  a  deeper 
sanity  that  binds  it  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of 
more  sober  races,  and  to  forms  of  imagination  more 
ripe  and  calm  with  the  experience  of  natural  law. 

It  is  all  concentrated  in  Gotama  Buddha  ;  but  its 
very  fertility  and  plasticity  save  it  from  crystal-  Its  ^i^. 
lizing  definitely  and  exclusively,  as  a  closed  sality- 
series  of  prodigies,  around  this  earlier  human  divinity, 
as  Protestant  supernaturalism  centered  and  confined  the 
miracle  in  its  Christ.  The  love  and  wisdom  of  Gotama 
are  one  and  the  same  thing  with  love  and  wisdom  in  all 
arhats  and  bodhisattvas ;  in  all  the  saints  who  walk 
in  the  great  "  Way  of  Release ; "  one  and  the  same 
thing  for  all,  in  its  power  over  the  elements,  and  in  the 
gift  of  transforming  itself  into  all  forms  and  forces  for 
the  good  of  man.  It  is  through  the  merit  of  all  beings 
in  these  higher  stages  of  attainment  that  the  "worlds 
are  renewed  ;  "  as  it  is  through  the  vice  of  all  degraded 
beings  that  they  are  destroyed.  The  heavens  and  hells 
of  Buddhism,  with  their  tremendous  imagery,  go  be- 
hind all  Buddhas  ;  for  they  rest  on  the  essential  nature 
of  virtue  and  vice. 

The  miraculous  legends  of  Gotama's  birth  and  in- 
fancy indeed,  like  corresponding  forms  of  the  myth 
in  relation  to  other  Eastern  saviours,  isolate  him  in 
celestial  splendor  above  all  beings ;  yet  only  as  cele- 
brating, in  this  as  in  other  religions,  the  divine  right  of 
holiness  and  love,  and  the  loyalty  of  the  visible  uni- 
verse to  their  redeeming  power.  Thus  at  his  birth  ten 
thousand  worlds  are  moved.    He  takes  seven  steps,  as  a 


782  BUDDHISM. 

sign  that  he  would  have  the  seven  constituents  of  the 
highest  knowledge  ;  and  Brahma  holds  over  his  head 
the  white  parasol  of  kingly  power,  to  show  that  he 
would  arrive  at  the  perfection  of  all  saintly  fruits  of 
emancipation.1  The  older  gods  —  magi,  bringing 
their  tribute  to  the  child  who  shall  supplant  them  — 
lay  the  powers  of  a  rejoicing  universe  at  his  feet.  We 
have  already  noticed  the  similarity  of  these  legends  to 
those  of  the  birth  and  infancy  of  Jesus.  We  have 
only  to  allow  for  the  difference  between  the  redun- 
dance of  Oriental  fancy  and  the  sobriety  of  Hebrew 
and  Greek,  and  the  points  of  resemblance  certainly 
appear  remarkable  :  the  royal  genealogy  of  Gotama  ; 
the  supernatural  conception  without  sexual  passion ; 
the  salutation  of  the  mother  by  guardian  devas ;  the 
worship  of  the  new-born  babe  by  all  the  powers  and 
elements  of  nature.  In  this  moment  of  rapture  at  the 
birth  of  nature's  lord  was  concentrated  by  Buddhism 
all  that  Christian  mythology  scattered  more  slowly 
along  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  infinitely  more  to  a  similar 
purpose.  The  material  body  of  the  holy  mother  be- 
came transparent,  and  disclosed  him,  fair  as  a  flower, 
leaning  on  his  hands  within  it.  At  his  birth  prisoners 
were  released,  the  fires  of  hell  put  out,  the  living  creat- 
ures forgot  their  hates,  and  sea  and  land  were  strewn 
with  flowers.  To  explain  these  messianic  correspond- 
ences, we  need  only  remember  that  the  religious 
imagination  in  both  cases  had  to  deal  with  the  same 
faith  in  the  authority  of  holiness  and  love,  the  same 
wonderful  and  prophetic  fact  of  their  entrance  into 
humanity,  and  the  same  ignorance  of  natural  laws. 

Oriental  worship  of  miracle  has  remained  colossal 
whence  its  m  comparison  with  Christian  mythology,  be- 
extent.        cause  it  is  a  more  profoundly  real  sentiment ; 

1  W lie  el  of  the  Law,  p-  103. 


MYTHOLOGY.  783 

not  weakened  by  that  sense  of  divided  allegiance  to 
which  the  latter  is  subjected  by  the  increasing  percep- 
tion of  positive  law.  Its  mythology  does  not  inti- 
mate a  divine  interference  with  the  universe  by  reason 
of  evil,  nor  convey  any  implication  against  nature, 
either  as  of  break  in  its  order,  or  of  supplement  to  its 
imperfection ;  but  is  co-extensive  and  even  identical 
with  nature.  It  is  not  evidence  of  dogma  nor  com- 
pulsion to  belief,  so  much  as  spontaneous  faith  in  the 
power  of  mind  to  change  the  appearances  of  things, 
the  ideality  of  wonder  and  delight.  "Miracles,"  says 
Gobineau,  "being  regarded  in  the  East  simply  as  ever- 
possible  manifestation  of  power  acquired  by  men  over 
the  changeable  methods  of  nature,  are  not  regarded  as 
proving  any  thing  in  behalf  of  the  religious  belief  of  the 
performer."  l  So  that  nature  may  well  be  a  free  play- 
ground for  the  gigantic  transformations  of  mythology. 
Asoka  cuts  a  slip  from  the  Buddha's  holy  Tree, 
surrounded  by  a  thousand  kings.  ■  With  golden 
pencil  he  draws  a  vermilion  stripe  around  a  bough, 
and  it  separates  from  the  tree  by  the  virtue  of 
prayer  and  the  predestination  of  Buddha's  law. 
Planted  in  a  golden  vessel,  it  instantly  takes  root,  at 
which  miracle  all  gods,  men,  and  beasts,  and  the  very 
earth  itself,  utter  a  shout  of  praise.  Then  proceeds 
the  sacred  bough,  emitting  many-colored  rays,  under 
convoy  of  persons  of  every  caste,  to  Ceylon,  on  a  ship, 
safely  guided  by  the  divine  powers  of  a  chief  priestess, 
entrusted  with  this  charge.  Placed  on  the  sacred  earth 
prepared  for  it,  the  tree  ascends  into  the  sky,  sending 
rays  to  the  highest  heavens  of  the  gods,  and  there 
stands  till  sunset,  converting  ten  thousand  souls  at  a 
time.a     Other  relics  ascend  in  the  same  way  to  shine 

1  Relig.  de  VAsie  Centrale,  p.  298.  °  Tumour's  Mahavans'a,  ch.  xviii.-xix. 


784  BUDDHISM. 

like  the  sun  for  a  while ;  after  which  the  earth  heaves 
itself  up  to  receive  them  with  tumultuous  joy.  When 
the  great  temple  of  Ruanwelli  is  to  be  dedicated,  the 
relics  of  Buddha  are  adored  amidst  celestial  flowers 
and  perfumes  by  gods  and  men,  with  music  that  fills 
the  sky ;  they  ascend  into  the  atmosphere  and  are 
transformed  into  the  natural  shape  of  the  Buddha, 
whose  multitudinous  qualities  form  themselves  around 
him  in  a  nimbus  of  glory,  the  mere  sight  of  which 
converts  innumerable  beings  into  saints.1  Palaces  in 
the  heavens  are  described  as  seen  by  the  eyes  of  saints, 
of  dimensions  and  splendors  that  strangely  contrast 
with  that  service  of  dead  bones  by  which  they  are 
attained.  Yet  what  associates  such  relics  with  the 
joys  of  paradise  is  hinted  in  the  tale  of  Bhirani,  a 
slave  girl,  who  for  her  benevolence  to  the  poor  was 
born  again  in  a  heaven  of  delight,  the  queen  of  one 
of  these  divine  mansions,  described  as  forty-eight 
leagues  in  circumference.2 

Shall  we  wonder  more  at  such  idealization  of  the 
relics  of  mortality,  or  at  such  absolute  faith  in  the 
supremacy  of  love?  In  either  way,  this  infantile  im- 
agination plays  with  nature  as  a  child  with  the  blocks 
which  he  builds  into  structures  that  grow  colossal  in 
his  dream. 

But  the  mythology  of  Buddhism,  like  its  worship 
of  images   and  relics,   grew  up  under  other 

The  fall  into  &  _  ...  .  ., 

ecciesiasti-  influences  besides  its  original  motive.  Like 
Brahmanism  it  fell  from  its  stage  of  prophecy 
to  its  stage  of  priesthood,  from  inspiration  to  ritualism  ; 
and  what  was  at  first  the  spontaneous  play  of  earnest 
instincts,  however  blind,  crystallized  into  the  polity  of 

1  Tumour's  Maliavatisa,  ch.  xxxi.  2  Ibid.,  ch.  xxvii. 


ECCLESIASTICISM.  785 

a  church.  In  tracing  the  process,  we  detect  in  its 
insidious  steps  the  perils  of  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion, and  the  necessity  for  constant  reconstruction  of 
religion  from  free  inward  centres  of  personal  life. 

Gotama,  so  far  as  is  known,  instituted  no  cultus. 
His  main  work  must  have  been  itinerant  Stepsofthe 
preaching  of  his  practical  ethics  and  his  phil-  Process- 
osophy  of  life  to  whomsoever  he  found  prepared  to 
hear  ;  and  this  novel  function  in  India  must  have  freely 
chosen  such  methods  as  occasions  prompted  or  allowed. 
Special  religious  rites  were  a  small  matter  to  one  who 
so  strongly  emphasized  every  moral  duty.  So  far  as 
they  entered  into  his  public  ministry  at  all,  they  must 
have  borrowed  the  prevailing  terms  and  symbols  of 
Brahmanism  ;  and  how  much  ritualism  he  was  likely  to 
have  taken  from  these  may  be  inferred  from  the  sentence 
ascribed  to  him  from  earliest  times  :  "  Brahma  dwells 
in  the  homes  where  children  honor  their  parents."1 
The  offerings  of  flowers  and  perfumes,  the  sound  of 
music  and  the  utterance  of  devout  ejaculations,  which 
have  always  been  main  features  of  the  Buddhist  ser- 
vice, are  precisely  such  forms  as  might  have  grown 
up  spontaneously  in  those  earliest  popular  gatherings 
around  the  beloved  teachers  of  a  gospel  like  this. 
Yet  with  the  increase  of  his  disciples,  and  the  growth 
of  a  definite  purpose  in  their  minds,  Gotama  may  have 
established  some  kind  of  arrangement  among  them, 
which  developed  itself  i'nto  later  distinctions  of  a  more 
positive  character.  We  find  his  assembly  consisting  of 
bhixus  (mendicants),  called  also  sramanas  (ascetics), 
all  of  whom,  men  or  women,  are  received  on  equal 
terms.2     Yet  it  is  said  that  "  some  comprehended  more 


1  Burnouf,  p.  338. 

a  Ibid.,  p.  278.     From  sratnan  (diligent)  is  derived  the  Chinese  "  shaman  "  or  priest. 

50 


786  BUDDHISM. 

of  the  doctrine,  others  less,  though  all  were  absorbed 
alike  in  the  Buddha  and  his  law."  2  Here  was  already 
ground  for  distinctions.  His  furthest  step  in  that 
direction  seems  to  have  been  classification  of  his 
followers  according  to  age  and  worth.9  We  find 
sthaviras,  or  elders,  distinguished  by  these  qualifica- 
tions, teaching  in  the  earliest  schools  and  presiding  at 
the  assemblies.3  From  the  whole  body  of  srdvakas,  or 
hearers,  there  soon  comes  to  be  set  off  an  elect  class, 
called  arhats;  but  this  was  also  a  distinction  founded 
on  wisdom  and  its  supposed  power  over  nature, — the 
word  itself  signifying  merit.*-  The  earliest  schism, 
however,  resulting  in  the  exodus  of  a  body  of  sthaviras 
and  the  conversion  of  Kashmir  to  the  faith,  is  believed 
to  have  originated  in  the  rebellion  of  the  younger 
disciples  against  the  growing  authority  of  these 
"elders."5  Veneration  for  "the  master"  was  another 
path  towards  ecclesiasticism.  It  was  natural  to  gather 
up  his  relics,  to  divide  them  as  a  common  legacy 
among  as  many  as  possible  ;  to  multiply  them  for  the 
same  purpose  ;  to  proselyte  with  images  and  pictures  ; 
to  add  the  relics  of  early  apostles  of  the  faith  to  his ; 
to  locate  them  in  shrines  ;  and  to  develop  out  of  all 
this  a  prescribed  system  of  pilgrimages  and  a  mass  of 
mythical  traditions.  It  was  natural  that  converts 
should  divide  into  monks  and  laity ; 6  that  they  should 
gather  into  small  fraternities,  choose  abbots  or  spiritual 
fathers,  and  classify  men  according  to  their  progress 
in  the  faith,  as  "the  unsanctified"  and  "the  holy;"7 
that  they  should  meet  yearly  in  larger  conclave,  and 

1  Burnouf,  p.  290.        a  Lassen,  II.  456;  Weber,  Varies.,  p.  265.       3  Koeppen,  I.  383. 

4  Burnouf,  p.  297.  The  Makavansa  (ch.  iii.)  speaks  of  the  first  council  held  immedi- 
ately after  Gotama's  death,  as  an  assembly  of  arhats ;  but  its  whole  account  is  mani- 
festly legendary. 

B  See  Journ.  Asiatique,  for  1S70,  p.  465.  6  Bhixus  and  Upisakas. 

7  Prithagdjanas  and  Aryas. 


ECCLESIASTICISM.  787 

hold  periodical  "assemblies  of  liberation,"  to  discuss 
questions  of  policy  in  the  conduct  of  this  great  mission- 
ary movement,  and  to  gather  up  contributions  for  the 
same ;  an  aim  that  proved  so  successful  as  in  after 
times  to  give  the  institution  the  title  of  "the  Field  of 
Alms."  It  was  natural  that  monasteries  and  nunneries 
should  multiply,  and  prove  stiff  defenders  of  ortho- 
doxy ;  and  legislative  synods  try  to  make  ecclesi- 
asticism  complete.  Three  of  these  were  held  within 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  Buddha's  death,  to 
define  errors  in  discipline,  custom,  and  faith,  and 
affirm  the  true  Buddhist  Law.  In  the  absence  of 
written  documents  relative  to  the  original  faith,  heresies 
could  not  be  wanting.  In  less  than  two  centuries, 
seventeen  different  sects  had  appeared.1  There  were 
schools  of  strict  and  schools  of  lax  discipline ;  schools 
holding  to  the  oldest  Sutras  only,  and  schools  accept- 
ing also  the  later  metaphysics  ;  2  schools  of  speculation, 
and  schools  resting  on  faith  alone.3  Quite  as  inevit- 
able it  was  that  there  should  come  a  Grand  Council, 
somewhat  of  the  Nicene  Christian  type,  to  settle  finally 
what  was  orthodox,  who  were  to  be  encouraged,  and 
who  to  be  held  heretical,  though  not,  as  in  Western 
dogmatic  differences,  to  be  suppressed  by  force. 
Buddhism  was  the  Protestantism  of  India,  and  a  mul- 
tiplication of  heresies  followed  its  larger  liberty ;  but 
not  less  distinctly  did  all  profess  to  hold  the  original 
faith,  and  appeal  to  the  name  of  the  Buddha.  These 
were  natural  tendencies  to  consolidation :  doubtless 
they  were  strengthened  by  a  common  opposition  on 
the  part  of  all  Buddhist  sects  to  Brahmanism.  Of 
the   synods,   to  which   all   the   traditions   testify,  the 

1  Tumour's  Mahavansa,  xx-  2  Sautrantikas  and  Vaibhashikas. 

3  Koeppen,  I.  157,  158. 


788  BUDDHISM. 

natural  result  must  have  been  some  kind  of  hierarchy. 
That  it  did  not  develop  into  a  great  Hindu  Church 
is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  things  in  the  history 
of  this  wonderful  movement.  Outside  of  India, 
wherever  a  state  embraced  Buddhism,  a  patriarch 
established  himself  at  the  court.1  The  argument  of 
convenience  and  expedition  in  the  machinery  of 
missionary  work  must  have  combined  with  personal 
ambition,  to  produce  elements  of  official  despotism  out 
of  grades  of  authority,  that  had  begun  in  the  natural 
gravitation  of  respect  to  age,  worth,  eloquence,  and 
devotion.2  All  this  was  of  course  contrary  to  the 
democratic  spirit  of  the  early  faith,  to  its  philosophy 
and  its  morality ;  and  the  history  of  Buddhism  in 
India  shows  how  powerfully  those  elements  of  free- 
dom could  work  in  counteraction  of  the  ecclesiastical 
process. 

During  the  thousand  years  of  Buddhist  ascendency 
in  India,  that  -process  was  never  developed.    In 

Resistance  ■*■  -1 

toconsoii-  the  time  of  Hiouen  Thsang,  the  early  democ- 
racy of  the  faith  was  still  vigorous.  Thirteen 
centuries  had  elapsed  since  the  first  preaching  of  this 
word,  and  yet  there  was  scarcely  a  sign  of  consolida- 
tion ;  there  was  no  national  church,  no  hierarchy,  no 
ecclesiastical  centre  or  headship.3  The  only  unity 
was  spiritual,  the  only  authority  was  unseen.  Every 
vihdra  was  a  free  centre  of  religion,  like  those  free 
political  units,  the  "village  communities."  And,  with 
all  this  independent  local  life,  the  peninsula  shone  with 
flourishing  Buddhist  institutions  of  culture  and  human- 
ity. Could  ecclesiasticism  have  come  and  gone  again? 
We  can  hardly  believe  it.     We  read  the  record  with 

1  Remusat,  Melanges  Posthumes-  2  Koeppen.  I.  3S2. 

s  St.  Hi'.aire,  p.  298 


ECCLESIASTICISM.  789 

admiration,  and   ask  ourselves  if  the  history  of  any 
religion  affords  its  parallel. 

*  But   in   Thibet    the    process    of   organization   was 
furthered   by  a  traditional   respect   for  patri-    ,       ,  . 

^  *  x  The  ecclesi- 

archal  institutions.1  It  was  therefore  inevit-  asticism  of 
able  that  a  succession  of  infallible  pontiffs Thlbet" 
should  at  last  be  set  up  in  proof  of  the  antiquity  and 
dignity  of  the  faith.  Further  combinations  with  the 
old  beliefs  in  transmigration  and  incarnation  issued  in 
the  Dalai-Lama  of  this  eastern  papacy,  and  his  equal, 
if  not  superior,  the  Bogdo  of  southern  Thibet :  ever 
renewed  and  propagated  by  miraculous  tokens  and 
special  inspirations  of  his  college  of  priests,  a  hier- 
archy of  no  less  than  nine  distinct  orders.2  The  par- 
allel with  Christian  history  may  be  pursued  further  :  — 
to  the  rivalries  of  different  Buddhist  popes  ;  to  their 
political  intrigues  for  building  up  a  vast  temporal 
power  ;  to  the  contentions  of  Red  and  Yellow  Lamas  ; 
and  to  the  ambition  of  every  important  convent  to  pos- 
sess an  authoritative  Lama  (Ckubilgkan)  of  its  own.3 
We  may  add  to  this  series  of  analogues  with  Western 
Catholicism  the  fall  of  the  Lamaist  Church  under  the 
dominion  of  a  foreign  power,  namely,  the  Chinese 
Imperial  Master  who  now  "protects"  Lha  Ssa,  that 
Oriental  Rome ;  and  the  idle  dream  of  its  present 
pontiff  that  supernatural  aid  is  at  hand  to  subject  civ- 
ilization to  his  sway.4 

Thus  Buddhist  organization  in  Thibet   ends,   like 
Brahmanical  caste  in  India,  in  disintegrative  _„   . 

0  J.  he  issues 

forces.     They  are  found,  after  all  the  phases  of  ecciesias- 
of    consolidation,    all-powerful   in    this    as    in 

1  Bastian,  Reisen  in  China,  p.  619.  2  Ibid.,  p.  572. 

3  Jo-urn.  Asiat.  Soc,  XVI.  254. 

4  See  the  interesting  account  of  Modern  Lamaism  in  Koeppen,   II.  105-242.     Also 
Bastian,  Reisen  in  China,  pp.  571-580,  and  Schlagintweit's  Buddhism  in  Thibet. 


790  BUDDHISM. 

other  distinctive  communions,  showing  how  vain  is 
that  assumption  of  finality  which  is  always  made  by 
Institutional  Religion. 

The  steps  of  degeneracy  involved  in  this  process 
were  the  same  which  every  effort  to  organize  a  re- 
ligious faith  on  a  great  scale  and  in  permanent  form 
has  inevitably  pursued.  The  first  simple  precepts  of 
the  teacher  multiplied  into  a  mass  of  ritualism  and 
petty  discipline,  filling  fifteen  volumes  of  the  enormous 
Thibetan  canon,  which  amounts  in  all  to  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty  books.1  This  scripture,  outside  Thibet, 
is  no  longer  read  to  the  nations  in  their  own  tongues.2 
The  representatives  of  the  non-resistant  Sakyamuni 
now  inflict  cruel  punishments  on  their  subjects.3  The 
perfect  democracy  of  the  earlier  time  was  slowly  yet 
steadily  modified,  till  slaves  could  not  be  admitted  to 
the  Church  without  consent  of  their  masters ;  and  the 
doors  were  fast  closed  to  a  diseased  person,  or  one  of 
uncertain  origin,  or  one  who  had  slain  a  priest,  or 
made  trouble  in  the  priesthood.4  Recruited  in  perpe- 
tuity, by  the  custom  that  one  lama  shall  come  out  of 
every  family  which  has  more  than  one  son,  the  priest- 
hood at  last  directs  the  whole  private  life  of  the  people, 
officiating  on  all  domestic  occasions,  performing  the 
part  of  physicians,  astrologers,  conjurers,  intercessors 
for  the  dead.  And  the  profligacy  which  is  inherent 
in  the  unnatural  relations  of  monasticism  is  not  want- 
ing, though  prevented  in  great  measure  by  the  ease 
with  which,  under  Buddhist  rules,5  a  discontented 
monk  or  nun  can  return  into  the  world.  The  sim- 
plicity of  the  early  faith  is  moreover  corrupted  by 
intermixture  with  the  popular  polytheism,  whose  dei- 

i  Bastian,  p.  575.  2  Koeppen,  II.  2S8.  s  Ibid.,  p.  331. 

4  Hardy,  Eastern  Monackism,  p.  210.  5  Koeppen,  I.  5S4,  354. 


ECCLESIASTICISM.  79I 

ties  have  been  referred  to  spheres  below  the  Buddhas 
and  Bodhisattvas,  yet  receive  a  modified  form  of  wor- 
ship. Buddhism  has,  however,  its  rationalistic  develop- 
ment also,  as  in  China  ;  where  the  hierarchical  system 
has  never  been  developed,  and  the  theoretic  elements 
it  depended  on,  such  as  incarnation  and  transmigra- 
tion, have  never  taken  root.  Although  China  as  a 
political  master  is  believed  to  dictate  the  succession  to 
the  Dalai  Lamaship  and  to  control  the  priesthood  of 
Thibet,  the  actual  relations  of  the  people  of  the  "  Mid- 
dle Kingdom"  with  this  spiritual  centre  are  in  fact 
very  remote.  As  a  natural  result,  many  of  the  oppres- 
sive rules  and  personal  vices  of  the  mendicant  and 
monkish  class  just  mentioned  are,  in  China,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  escaped.  The  mendicancy  of  the 
Buddhist  priesthood,  of  course  a  mark  of  dependence, 
will  greatly  tend  to  their  downfall  in  the  present  age  : 
they  however,  especially  in  Ceylon,  compare  favor- 
ably in  morals  with  the  clergy  of  other  religions,  not- 
withstanding the  peculiar  perils  to  which  their  celibacy 
and  their  mendicancy  alike  expose  them.1 

The  old  and  constant  record  of  distinctive  religions  is 
their  passage  from  Inspiration  to  Ritualism  and  Buddhist 
thence  to  Ecclesiastical  Despotism.  Yet  the  j^nai^ 
resemblance  of  Thibetan  Buddhism  to  Roman  gies. 
Catholicism  has  often  been  supposed  to  prove  a  direct 
influence  of  the  latter,  on  the  former,  of  these  religions. 
There  is  no  more  need  of  such  an  explanation  than 
k  there  is  evidence  of  its  truth.  Such  evidence  is  wholly 
wanting.  The  cross,  the  mitre,  the  rosary,  censers, 
bells  at  the  altar,  tonsure,  exorcism,  celibacy,  fasts, 
holy  water,  baptism,  confession,  benediction  by  laying 
on  of  hands,  are  thoroughly  Oriental  symbols,  indige- 
nous to  the  soil.     So  the  custom  of  going  on  pilgrim- 

1  St.  Hilaire,  p.  403. 


792 


BUDDHISM. 


ages  is  much  older  than  Christianity.  In  the  third 
century  India  was  and  had  long  been  the  resort  of 
Buddhist  pilgrims  from  all  northern  Asia.  The  idea 
of  prayer  to  saints,  as  well  as  that  of  compelling  their 
aid,  is  familiar  to  Hindu  faith  from  earliest  times. 
Confession  in  the  Buddhist  Church  is  very  well  de- 
scribed as  growing  out  of  the  maxim,  "Live  hiding 
your  good  works,  and  proclaiming  your  evil  ones  ; " 
which  is  certainly  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  sutras. 
Confession  is  spoken  of  as  a  custom  in  the  oldest 
legends  of  Buddhism,  and  even  represented  as  made 
before  the  whole  assembly,  at  certain  seasons,  and 
under  the  direction  of  Buddha  himself. 

That  mediaeval  Christianity  originated  these  and  other 
forms  of  Thibetan  Lamaism,  through  the  teaching  of 
Nestorian  monks,  is  asserted  upon  no  other  evidence 
than  conjecture.1  It  is  much  less  improbable  that  the 
facts  are  the  other  way, — that  Christian  symbolism 
is  very  largely  of  Oriental  origin.2  Buddhism  is,  as 
our  whole  account  has  shown,  genuinely  Indian.8  It 
made  its  way  into  Western  Asia  some  time  previous 
to  the  Christian  era.  Its  influence  in  moulding 
Gnostic,  Manichaean,  and  Neo-Platonic  teachers  is 
unquestionable.4 

We  may  observe  also,  in  passing,  that  the  re- 
semblances   between    Gnostic    systems    on    the    one 


1  Tennent  gives  many  legends  from  the  Mahavansa  strikingly  resembling  those  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  which  he  ascribes  to  the  influence  of  Malabar  Jews  and  Nes- 
torian Christians.  But  why  may  not  this  resemblance  have  grown  out  of  that  common 
movement  of  the  religious  sentiment  in  man,  which  must  explain  the  analogies  of  Thibetan 
Buddhism  with  Romanism  in  dogma  and  ritual?  On  the  other  hand,  Ferguson  (Rude 
Stone  Monuments,  p.  499)  thinks  that  nine-tenths  the  changes  introduced  into  Christianity 
in  the  Middle  Ages  were  of  Buddhist  origin  !  It  is  very  easy  to  go  much  too  far  in  the 
direction  of  historic  derivation. 

2  Lassen  ;  Prinsep ;  Koeppen  ;  Thomson's  Introd.  to  Bhag.  Gita. 

3  Burnouf;  Colebrooke;  St.  Hilaire. 

*  Lassen,  III.  354-405,  440.     Baur's  Christliche  Gnosis  (1835),  pp.  54-60. 


ECCLESIASTICISM.  793 

hand,  and  the  Buddhist  and   Sankhya  on  the  other, 
are    of  a  very   profound    character.     Among  ,  a 

J      r  o  Influence  on 

these  are  their  common  opposition  to  the  christian 
material  and  changing  world ;  their  sue- £y 
cessive  potencies  emanating  in  descending  series  ;  the 
idea  of  creation  as  originating  in  the  fall  of  a  beam 
from  the  world  of  light ;  the  recognition  of  justice  as 
ruling  the  processes  of  existence  ;  the  threefold  division 
of  qualities  ;  the  faith  in  liberation  through  knowledge  ; 
and  the  separation  of  the  soul  from  '  nature '  into  its 
own  self-subsistence.  Then  the  very  point  of  contact 
for  the  Oriental  with  the  Greek  mind  was  provided  in 
the  great  trade-emporium  of  Alexandria,  where  Gnos- 
ticism arose  contemporaneously  with  the  recorded  em- 
bassies of  the  Hindus,  commercial  and  other,  to  the 
West.1  It  is  matter  of  history  also  that  Buddhism 
was  well  known  in  Babylon,  just  before  the  appear- 
ance of  Mani  and  his  diialistic  faith ; 2  and  that  the 
Neo-Platonists  sought  very  earnestly  and  successfully 
to  acquaint  themselves  with  Oriental  systems.3 

The  whole  process  of  reasoning  from  moral  and 
spiritual  resemblances  in  different  religions,  to  a  his- 
torical connection  between  them,  is,  however,  to  be 
handled  with  great  caution.  When  used,  as  it  so 
frequently  is,  in  the  interest  of  a  special  faith,  it  has 
been  very  apt  to  turn  its  sharpest  edge  against  the 
user.  But  why  should  it  be  ignored,  in  religious 
history  alone,  that  like  causes  must  breed  like  effects? 
The  similarity  may  well  run  into  minute  details  even, 
since  the  great  shaping  moulds  of  human  nature  and 
religious  relation  are  alike  in  all  races. 

Thus,  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  ecclesiastical 

»  Strabo,  Pliny,  and  others,  quoted  in  Lassen,  III.  57-73- 

2  Lassen,  III.  p.  407.  s  Matter's  Ecole  d'Alexandrie,  II.  368. 


794  BUDDHISM. 

organization  naturally  enough  presents  the  same  es- 
„,_...     sential  features  and  processes  of  degeneracy. 

Christianity  r  °  J 

and  Budd-    Comparative  religion  shows  us  a  similar  pict- 
ure in  the  history  of  Christianity  to  that  which 
we  have  been   studying. 

Jesus  apparently  organized  no  religious  machinery, 
no  positive  cultus.  On  the  contrary,  he  preached  and 
worked  in  a  personal,  prophetic  way ;  announcing  an 
approaching  end  of  this  world  and  the  coming  of  a 
kingdom  that  was  not  of  it ;  and  calling  on  men  to 
accept  his  claim  as  Messiah  to  judge  between  the  just 
and  the  unjust,  in  that  day.  Of  the  institutional  meaning 
of  the  approaching  change,  and  of  the  special  ways 
in  which  his  own  name  would  be  exalted  therein,  his 
record  gives  no  sign  that  he  had  the  least  presentiment. 
How  could  he  or  his  immediate  disciples  anticipate  its 
grand  hierarchy,  ecclesiastical  councils,  machinery  of 
association  for  the  coercion  of  private  judgment?  It 
lay  involved,  indeed,  in  his  original  claim  of  authority 
vested  in  one  exclusive  Lord  and  Master  of  salvation, 
just  as  Buddhistic  ecclesiasticism,  in  its  peculiar  form, 
grew  out  of  the  concentration  of  Buddhism  around 
one  personal  name.  If  there  be  but  one  church  and 
One  Head  thereof,  it  naturally  follows  that  there 
should  always  be  a  representative  of  this  Head,  visible 
as  the  church  itself.  On  this  there  further  follows  an 
all-controlling  mechanism  to  perpetuate  the  idea.  But 
at  first  Christianity  knew  simply  the  congregation, 
choosing  its  own  teachers,  and  managing  its  own  con- 
cerns ;  under  apostolic  advice,  it  is  true,  and  perhaps,  to 
a  certain  extent,  dictation.  A  few  simple  forms  ;  some 
slight  conditions  of  membership,  deemed  necessary 
in  days  of  weakness  and  peril  from  false  brethren ; 
the  Jew-Christians  indeed   insisting  on  circumcision, 


ECCLESIASTICISM.  795 

yet  unable  to  impose  it  on  the  Gentile  world ;  friendly 
or  admonitory  letters  passing  from  church  to  church, 
with  contributions  from  the  strong  in  aid  of  the  weak ; 
—  this  was  all  the  machinery  in  its  age  of  inspiration 
by  the  original  motive.  But  contentions  began  early, 
over  what  Jesus  was  and  what  he  willed.  Churches 
multiplied.  Bishops  meddled  with  each  other's  flocks. 
Councils  were  necessary  to  settle  the  faith,  and,  after 
quarrelling  their  utmost,  imposed  their  decisions  on 
the  people.  Metropolitans  managed  or  browbeat  the 
country  pastors,  settling  and  unsettling  ministers, 
lobbying  and  levying,  ^/-escribing  and  proscribing. 
Gradually  the  political  prestige  of  the  Metropolitan 
of  Rome  made  him  Head  of  the  Church  visible, 
representative  of  the  One  Invisible  Head.  Strong 
men  like  Victor  and  Gregory  sat  in  the  imaginary 
Peter's-seat,  mastered  the  councils  and  the  state,  fulmi- 
nated decrees  and  settled  points  of  ritual,  till  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  with  its  strange  mixture  of 
mummery  and  devotion,  of  pomp  and  humility,  be- 
came for  its  season  a  sovereign  in  the  religious  world. 
All  the  passions  and  follies,  as  well  as  the  nobilities  of 
thought  and  conduct,  by  which  it  was  brought  to  its 
throne,  were  steps  in  the  evolution  of  the  idea  of  eccle- 
siastical organization,  which  had  gathered  around  the 
conception  of  a  Christ.  The  second  stage  of  Christi- 
anity, the  age  of  Priesthood  and  Ritualism,  was  to  have 
its  day.  It  compelled  the  third,  which  was  fresh  In- 
spiration. Luther,  preceded  by  the  mediaeval  mystics, 
came ;  and  there  was  recurrence  to  the  free  personal 
life,  the  root  of  religion.  But  the  recognition  of  this 
root  was  still  imperfect,  and  again  came  organization 
about  the  name  and  the  church  of  Christ.  Calvin  soon 
turns  the  prayer  and  the  protest  to  rigid  dogma  and 


796  BUDDHISM. 

merciless  discipline ;  and  the  Protestant  sects  build  up 
new  limbos,  as  like  as  may  be,  under  the  new  condi- 
tions of  civilization,  to  those  they  had  spurned.  Again 
therefore  comes  reaction  to  the  inspiration  of  a  new 
ideal ;  and  the  free  personal  religion  that  becomes  the 
Free  State  is  laying  its  foundations,  not  now  in  ecclesi- 
astical construction  around  a  historical  name  or  person, 
but  in  the  moral  laws  and  natural  forces,  in  unity  of 
practical  brotherhood,  integrity  of  culture,  and  worship 
of  the  infinite  in  the  whole  movement  of  life  and 
growth. 

Why  has  Buddhism  lacked  this  vigor  and  stir  of 
progress?      Doubtless    because,    with    all    its 

Why  Budd-  ^        fe  .... 

hismisun-  reaction   upon    Hindu  belief  and  institutions, 

progressive.   ^    remained  within    the    ol(J    Hindu     dixie,    and 

made  contemplation  the  chief  end  of  man.  Still  the 
dreaming  brain  supplanted  spiritual  muscle  and  nerve. 
Still  it  so  brooded  over  the  idea,  as  to  lose  the  form  of 
action.  n  My  religion,"  said  Chinese  Laotseu,  in  the 
true  Buddhist  spirit,  "  consists  in  thinking  the  incon- 
ceivable thought,  in  going  the  impassable  way,  in 
speaking  the  ineffable  word,  in  doing  the  impossible 
thing."  We  may  smile,  but  the  old  dreamer  meant 
an  ideal  faith.  As  abstraction  and  meditation,  all 
great  thought  works  in  this  way.  Yet  in  action  it 
must  conform  to  conditions ;  and  in  the  mutual  contact 
of  these  two  is  struck  out  the  fire  of  progress. 

How  inveterate  the  cerebral  element  in  the  Hindu 
mind  !    Even  in  its  protest  against  an  isolated 

The  Hindu  r  & 

type  in  sainthood  in  the  name  of  love  and  pity,  it  could 
Buddhism.  forbid  the  perCeption  of  those  social  and  phys- 
ical laws  which  provide  the  affections  their  natural  op- 
portunity. Greek,  Afghan,  Mogul,  British,  Dutch, 
American,  have  thus  far  done  little  to  counteract  the 


THE    HINDU    TYPE.  797 

gravitation  of  the  native  Hindus  to  reverie.  Abstract 
thinking  has  held  dominion  in  their  works  and  ways. 
As  it  came  off  triumphant  within  India  from  the  Budd- 
hist reaction  towards  practical  work,  so  it  has  been  com- 
municated, in  some  measure,  through  the  expansion  of 
Buddhism  itself,  to  other  races  of  a  less  speculative  cast. 

The  practical  side  of  Buddhism  prompted,  of  course, 
to  the  use  of  natural  symbolism.  But  the  sym-  Thgs  mbol_ 
bols  were  chosen  by  the  same  absorbing  sense  ism  of 
of  the  transient  and  unreal  in  all  positive  forms. 
The  Lotus,  hovering  on  the  heave  of  the  sea,  a  deli- 
cate bloom  just  mantling  for  a  moment  a  restless,  all- 
engulfing  deep  ;  the  Wheel,  that  symbol  of  a  life  that 
revolves  for  ever  around  itself,  in  perpetual  change 
without  progress, — these  are  the  two  select  types  of 
Buddhist  thought  and  art.  The  wheel  stands  whirling 
before  the  door,  to  greet  the  stranger  with  its  admoni- 
tion. It  whirls  on  the  house-tops,  a  sign  that  even 
the  routines  of  domestic  life  are  a  swift  motion  that 
escapes  us  while  we  seek  to  grasp  and  to  hold  it  fast. 
It  whirls  on  the  hearth  by  the  draft  of  the  fire  ;  and  it 
whirls  in  the  running  stream  by  force  of  water :  and 
men  carry  it  whirling  as  they  walk.  It  whirls  as 
vicarious  religious  machinery,  adopted  into  the  formal- 
ism of  meritorious  works ;  and,  as  with  symbolism  in 
general,  other  superstitions  have  doubtless  very  much 
obscured  its  primary  meaning.  For  even  so  does  man 
relieve  himself  from  the  vanity  of  for  ever  contemplat- 
ing a  restless  whirl  of  vicissitude,  where  nothing  abides 
but  change  itself. 

Yet  what  is  this  symbol,  after  all,  but  admonition  to 
seek  the  eternal,  and  to  trust  in  the  law  that  The  Budd- 
rounds  all  change  with  preserving  renewal  Awheel, 
and   return?      Nor   can  we   doubt   that  such  deeper 


798  BUDDHISM. 

meanings  have  given  rest  and  courage  to  thousands 
of  meditative  watchers  of  the  Buddhist  Wheel. 

The  Wheel  was  in  fact  not  only  the  accepted  em- 
blem of  transmigration  and  its  returns  to  birth,  but 
also,  as  associated  with  the  Disk  (which  indicates  the 
strength  of  the  arm  that  sets  it  rolling,  perhaps  also 
the  orb  of  the  sun),  an  emblem  of  universal  dominion. 
It  was  the  sacred  mark  seen  on  the  hands  and  feet 
of  the  infant  Buddha,  by  which  the  sages  were  able 
to  predict  his  divine  destiny  to  "  roll  the  wheel "  of 
unlimited  sway.1  Rama  also  is  called  "  the  Wheel." 
Thus  the  symbol  of  the  transiency  of  all  things  be- 
comes itself  representative  of  the  one  only  life  that 
can  overcome  it;  that  is,  of  the  almighty  and  ever- 
lasting. The  very  "  prayer  cylinder  "  represents  the 
universe  ;  and  on  its  turning  axle,  bringing  many  sides 
successively  to  view,  the  types  of  all  living  creatures 
impartially  revolve.2  "  A  hundred  and  eight  sacred 
figures  are  the  guard  of  honor  around  the  holy  wheel." 
"  The  wheel  has  ignorance  and  desire  for  its  axis, 
predisposition  for  its  spokes,  decrepitude  and  death  for 
its  tire."3  To  be  master  of  their  revolutions  was  to  be 
a  lord  of  life. 

There  was  also  a  favorite  architectural  symbol  for 
this  worship  of  the  duty  that  is  rounded  with  a  dream. 
That  dome-like  shape,  —  now  sunk  like  a  cushion  for 
slumber,  as  on  the  Buddhist  pillars ;  now  swelling,  as 
on  the  stufias,  into  a  definite  sphere  ;  now  active,  now 
at  rest ;  mobile  in  assuming  either  attitude,  and  long- 
ing, apparently,  for  both,  —  what  an  emblem  it  is  of 
this  mystical  faith,  so  strangely  combining  practical 

1  See  Sykes  on  the  Political  State  of  Ancient  India.     Journal  R-  A  ■  S.,  vol.  vi. 

2  Bastian,  Reisen  in  China,  p.  565. 

3  Wheel  of  the  Law.  pp.  113,  241. 


UNIVERSAL    RELIGION.  799 

energy  and  contemplative  calm  !  It  is  the  Bubble, 
purest  type  of  the  transient  and  unreal ;  yet  this  mere 
evanescence,  this  very  emptiness,  this  nothing,  if  it  but 
breaks,  —  is  in  fact  held  from  breaking,  fixed  in  en- 
during forms  of  art  and  use.1  Such  the  lesson  that 
comes  to  us  from  vihdra  and  dagofi,  where  the  hearts 
of  millions  find  impulse,  and  their  longings  and  sor- 
rows, rest. 

The  Brahmanic  symbol,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the 
Banyan,  whose  vast  shadow  expands  and  The  Ban- 
deepens  with  the  multiplication  of  stems  that  yan- 
shoot  downward  to  refasten  themselves  in  the  earth. 
Hindu  thought  perpetually  recurs  to  the  inward 
shadows  of  that  self-renewing  mystery  of  change, 
which  grows  with  the  multiplication  of  visible  forms 
and  finite  desires.  Hew  down  these  banyans  of 
the  mind,  it  says,  and  reach  the  eternal  life  they  veil. 

Banyan  and  Bubble  !      Such  the  symbolism  of   a 
philosophy  too  deeply  immersed  in  contempla- 
tion to  find  the  full  validity  of  the  world  and    and  the 
life.     But  we  have  seen  that  the  forward  look 
is  not  wanting ;  we  have  traced  the  disintegration  of 
old  social  and  religious  systems,  and  the  living  germs 
of  freedom  in  pantheistic  belief;  we  have  noted  the 
force  of  Buddhist  expansion,  and  its  faith  in  a  future 
that  shall  bring  on  earth  the  fulness  of  that  peace  and 
love  which  is  the  Buddhist  heaven.     The  earnestness 
of  this  faith  is  illustrated  by  the  abolition  of  slavery  by 
the  present  king  of  Siam.     The  contact  of  the  practi- 
cal West  with  the  introversive  East  must  bring  mutual 
impulse,   and   help  to   balance  the  human  globe,  as 
the  continents  the  physical. 

1  It  is  even  made  emblematic,  in  the  three  hemispheres  that  constitute  the  ckaityas,  or 
relic-temples,  of  the  triple  form  of  deity,  Buddha,  the  Law,  and  the  Church. 


SOO  BUDDHISM. 

Bubble  and  Banyan  mean  more  than  dream.  Is  not 
„     .  ,     that  spheric  form  the  emblem  of  a  world-wide 

Practical  * 

and  contem- unity  of  life  and  purpose?  That  dim  pillared 
platIveraces' forest  is  from  a  single  root;  and,  as  it  grows, 
do  not  its  airy  branches  turn  back  incessantly  to  the 
soil  it  loves,  as  if  to  hold  earth  and  heaven  united  by 
imperishable  ties?  So  with  the  faith  which  these 
natural  symbols  subserved. — The  reaction  of  Brah- 
manism  to  Buddhism  demonstrated  that  there  were 
germs  of  democratic  energy  in  the  nature  of  contem- 
plation itself.  The  Buddhist  -pifjxila,  or  Bo-tree, 
symbolizes  the  power  of  human  nature  to  burst  every 
bond  of  apathy.  "  Its  vitality  is  extraordinary  ;  its 
roots  will  crack  and  rend  buildings,  and  only  preserve 
their  memory  by  the  huge  fragments  which  they 
retain  for  centuries  clasped  in  their  embrace."  So  the 
abstract  idea  fled  into  interior  deeps  only  to  find  the 
need  of  social  communion,  to  learn  that  man  cannot 
live  by  meditation  only,  and  to  rend  and  burst  its  own 
ancient  structures  with  the  invincible  energy  of  noble 
purpose.  That  mystical  instinct  of  the  Unity  of  Life, 
which  formed  the  constant  matrix  of  Hindu  thought, 
—  unconscious  of  its  own  inevitable  relations,  un- 
aware that  science  should  one  day  fulfil  its  substantial 
meaning  in  endless  practical  correlations  and  uses,  — 
ruled  life  with  an  exclusiveness  that  depressed  energy 
and  threatened  morality.  Yet  even  then  its  very 
sense  of  a  common  bondage  and  misery  in  all  living 
beings  became  a  sympathetic  impulse  that  reached 
throughout  existence;  an  ardor  of  love  and  pity,  that 
knew  no  limit,  and  no  repose. 

The  wide  extension  of  Buddhism,  as  compared  with 
signs  of  Brahmanical  aristocracy  and  caste,  indicates 
promise.      ^^  [n  Eastern  civilization  itself  these  oppres- 


UNIVERSAL    RELIGION.  8oi 

sive  elements  are  less  natural  to  man  than  the  instincts 
of  fellowship  and  equality.  Malcom  tells  us  of  a  numer- 
ous and  growing  sect  of  reformers  in  Burmah,  whose 
founder,  Kolan,  revised  the  Buddhist  law,  about 
seventy  years  ago,  and  taught  the  "  worship  of  wis- 
dom." "This  sect  discard  the  use  of  images,  and 
have  neither  priests  nor  sacred  books.  Their  teachers 
rise  from  time  to  time,  always  from  among  the  laity, 
and  gain  many  followers."1  St.  Hilaire  describes  a 
powerful  reaction  in  Ceylon,  from  later  superstitions 
to  the  simplicity  of  early  Buddhism  ;  a  democratic 
revolution  arising  from  the  effort  of  the  state,  nearly  a 
hundred  years  since,  to  confine  the  right  of  entrance  to 
the  priesthood  within  a  single  powerful  caste.  One  of 
the  lower  castes,  the  Tchaliyas,  had  the  spirit  and 
intelligence  to  rebel  against  this  innovation,  and,  being 
well  provided  with  means,  made  an  effective  stand  for 
puritan  principles.  About  the  end  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, these  reformers  imported  from  Burmah  a  body 
of  priests,  devoted,  like  themselves,  to  the  simplicity 
of  primitive  Buddhism  ;  and  the  movement  received 
fresh  impulse.  Special  changes  insisted  on  by  the 
reformers  were  these  :  —  an  open  door  into  the  minis- 
try for  all  classes ;  freedom  from  state  interference 
with  religion ;  abandonment  of  astrology ;  reading 
of  the  books  of  the  faith  freely  to  all.  This  "sect 
of  Amarapura,"  so  called  from  the  Burmese  city 
whence  it  received  its  teachers,  has  been  very  suc- 
cessful in  its  efforts  to  purify  Buddhism  from  polythe- 
ism and  caste,  and  made  numerous  converts  in  different 
provinces  of  the  kingdom.  Other  sects  make  other 
demands,  and  Ceylonese  Buddhism  seems  to  be  alive 
with  religious  discussion  and  heretical  zeal.2     Another 

1  Notes  on  Burmese  Empire,  ch.  vi.  2  St.  Hilaire,  p.  407. 

51 


S02  BUDDHISM. 

impressive  illustration  has  recently  appeared  in  Siam. 
Large  numbers  of  Buddhists  in  that  country  have 
thrown  aside  negative  speculation  and  ecclesiastical 
authority,  and  the  whole  miraculous  element  in  their 
traditions.  They  have  not  been  content  with  this 
individual  emancipation,  but  have  proceeded  to  found 
free  churches  on  the  moral  teachings  of  Buddha,  and 
the  practical  brotherhood  which  they  require.1  Surely 
these  brave  steps,  apparently  due  to  native  impulses,  — 
and,  if  furthered  by  contact  with  Christianity,  yet 
showing  no  sign  of  conversion  to  that  special  faith,  — 
point  directly  towards  the  free  communion  of  Universal 
Religion. 

1  Weber's  Indisclie  Studien,  II.  320;  Koeppen,  I.  468.  The  efforts  of  the  late  king 
in  this  direction,  and  the  writings  of  his  minister,  ( The  Modem  Buddhist)  have  already 
been  noticed. 


Cambridge  1  Press  of  John  Wilson  and  Son. 


Date  Due 

ftp  j  a  ^s 

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